Once in A Blue Moon
by TalkingToTulips
Summary: "Well sometimes, a male and a female wolf meet, there is a connection that is there from the moment their hands touch or their eyes meet, like human love at first sight but more primal and real." An AU Klaus is the alpha of one of the biggest packs in the states and Caroline is a orphaned omega, adjusting to her new life.
1. Prologue

The moon in the sky was full as it shone down on the Kentucky forest that the girls had chosen as their camping ground for the weekend. It was the girls' own way of celebrating their graduation that week, and whilst her friends were celebrating the fact that they were going to college at the end of the summer, for Caroline there was another reason to celebrate. A better one. She'd turned 18 two weeks ago, and she was officially out of the foster system. No more bullshit foster families acting like they cared, no more social workers pretending that they were going to help her, no more homes and no more bratty kids trying to make friends with her.

Tonight was the last night of the trip so the girls she'd befriended in High school, Isabelle and Juniper (Yes, that's her real name), were sleeping soundly in the tent. Caroline however was too restless, too hot, too tense in her sleeping bag to get a decent nights' sleep. She wriggled in her fabric cocoon and accidentally her knee jabbed Juniper in the shin. "Ow, fuck, Caroline!" She whispered, sitting up.

"Sorry!" Caroline apologised. "I...I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Too much to drink, I think." Juniper shushed her softly, indicating to a snoring Isabelle with a nod of the head. Caroline sighed. She'd never hear the end of it if she woke up Isabelle from her beauty sleep. Caroline sighed and unzipped her sleeping bag, kicking the fabric off her to free herself and pulling on her boots. "Where are you going?" Juniper asked curtly, furrowing her brow as Caroline pulled on her hoodie and began to the door of the tent.

"For some fresh air, go back to sleep, June." Caroline assured her friend. The brunette did just that, lying back down and closing her eyes. Caroline rolled her eyes at her friend's willingness to just dismiss Caroline and her wandering into a forest infested with wild animals and homeless men, not that any of that ever scared her. When you grow up in the foster system, you learn not to be surprised or scared of anything. If there were wolves wanting to eat her, they could bring it on; she thought to herself as she unzipped the door to the tent and began outside.

The moon light illuminated Caroline's skin as she stepped out and her eyes were drawn to the full moon, it seemed oddly bright and beautiful tonight. She'd always loved the sight of a full moon, how mysterious and regal it always looked as it gazed down on the mere mortals but tonight it seemed supernaturally magnificent. In the distance, owls cooed their lullabies and insects chirped incessantly, but there was no howling. Maybe Caroline didn't have to worry about being eaten after all she thought as she rolled her neck and began to sit beside the dying campfire the girls had left burning, adding a piece of firewood they'd collected earlier.

It was only then that she noticed that her skin felt as if it had been sunburned, itchy and tingly. Caroline looked down at her hand, examining her pale and clear skin for any defects. Nothing noticeable was different but it didn't stop her from feeling like she was burning up. Caroline groaned in discomfort and pulled the hoodie over her head, wearing only a vest top underneath and exposing her arms and neck to the air in the hopes that it would cool her down. It didn't.

The more her skin drank in the moonlight, the hotter she felt. Caroline's head fell into her hands as she felt dizzy and faint. She made a noise of discomfort as her heart began to race, and her skin continued to tingle. What was happening to her? Maybe she had had too much to drink. Caroline tried to remember how much she had drunk tonight from the secret stash that Juniper had brought out using a fake ID. Her memory was fuzzy and blurry, her eyes teared up at the ache underneath her skin and the pain in her bones, an almost pressure that made it seem like she was about to snap in half.

A second later, she did. The unmistakeable snapping of bone, Caroline's arm by the sound of it, filled the air but she didn't scream. She felt oddly expectant of it. The second bone, a leg went and she let out a whimper, grabbing at the limb with her good arm and trying to stand. Whatever was happening to her, she didn't want to be around her friends when it did. Now, she didn't expect to get far on a broken leg before the other one snapped. She however managed to get into a clearing that was out of audible distance from her campsite when the second leg broke.

The moon continued to shine down on the girl as she writhed in pain, unable to scream, as her teeth began to exhibit the full brunt of the agony and she clutched one hand around her mouth to fill the unmistakable pinch of a long, canine fang where her human canines had once been. It was then she understood what was happening to her, but it was impossible, wasn't it? She couldn't possibly be turning into a werewolf, that was a myth, a story, a lie told to little children on Halloween. Before she could contemplate the issue further, her spine snapped in half and Caroline began to black out.

* * *

**One year later **

Klaus was sat in the living room with a glass of scotch, his post full moon ritual, when his phone rang from where it sat on the arm of the chair. It was Elijah. He sighed heavily, picking up the phone and pressing the accept button. He held the device to his ear and greeted his big brother and beta just as Kol came into the room and grabbed the TV remote. He turned on the TV and fell back onto the sofa whilst Klaus glared. "What can I do for you, Elijah? I believe I told you I didn't want to be disturbed." He asked testily.

"If you didn't want to be disturbed, you wouldn't live with Kol." Elijah replied simply.

"I could hardly leave him alone with Mother's silverware. He'd kill himself within the week." Klaus shot back. He didn't even understand why the family had silverware, they couldn't use it. One touch and the skin that came into contact would burn off their bones. Maybe it was to make Esther feel high end and classy, the appearance of class was always important when your family turned into wolves once a month, Klaus supposed. At this point, Kol was scowling at his brother. "What did you want, Elijah? It's been a long night." He recalled.

"It's been a long night for us all." Elijah reminded him, his irritation seeping into his voice. "Kayleigh wasn't seen by any of the pack members last night. Or the last few days."

"Maybe she wasn't in the mood for socializing, how is this of any importance to me?" Klaus asked, looking at the ceiling in annoyance and taking another sip of his drink. The amber liquid shone in the early morning light that filtered through the curtains that neither of the Mikaelson men had bothered to open as Kol took a sip of the stupid cheap beer he insisted on chugging down. He had turned away and focused on the replays of some infernal football game, but Klaus could tell that he was listening in the conversation.

"And neither was her mate, Mark. Last person who can remember seeing him said it was more than a week ago. I am beginning to worry that we may have lost them. It's about high time that we paid them a visit. If they have decided to move on, they won't be there anymore but if they haven't, then this might be your chance to convince them to stay." He explained. Klaus perked up slightly and Kol looked over, having heard his brother's proposal with his sensitive hearing. Klaus finished off his scotch and stood up, licking any remaining drops off his lips and telling his brother to meet him at the couple's house in ten minutes before hanging up.

"Are you coming and making yourself useful and are you content on sitting about like a useless lout all day?" Klaus asked his brother as he grabbed his jacket and pulled it on. Kol looked like he was contemplating and weighing each option in his mind, taking a slow sip of beer and crinkling his nose with indecisiveness. "Come now, Kol, we both know that you can't turn down a chance of any excitement or being privy to pack gossip, so why don't we stop beating around the bush and get going? Our brother is expecting us." Klaus replied tersely as he began towards the door through a large archway that joined the living room and the spacious hallway.

"It wouldn't hurt you to say please just once, big brother." Kol replied in a matter of fact tone, standing up and beginning into the entrance hall himself. Klaus just rolled his eyes and opened the door, beginning into the dawn light and down towards his car. Kol followed behind, muttering to himself and closing the door behind him.

* * *

The door to the house was wide open, and that was the first sign. Klaus, Elijah and Kol began up cautiously to the porch and the alpha amongst them slowly stepped over the threshold, followed by his brothers. All the lights were off, but the place was tidy. All their possessions were still in their places, pictures of the couple on the wall. Kayleigh was a 24 year old black haired girl with olive coloured skin and poker straight hair, Mark was the same age, strawberry blonde and tall. The former had originally been from a pack in Kentucky and met Mark two years ago.

She'd become part of Klaus' pack by proxy and assimilated nicely.

"Kayleigh…" Elijah called out for the woman; none of them expected Mark to still be around after being missing a week. There was no response. Kol was beginning out to search the upstairs whilst Klaus and Elijah tried the downstairs. Klaus cast a glance out to the vegetable garden out back that was dying from mistreatment. He looked down at another frame of the pair, noticing that the glass was broken and cracked. Elijah returned from his search. "Nobody in the downstairs rooms."

"I doubt that either of them is here." Klaus replied, eyes still on the picture.

Kol's voice interrupted the both of them as he came back down the stairs at a moderate pace, obviously with a lead. Elijah and Klaus both turned to look at their little brother, the older brother with his eyebrows rose in question. "All her stuff is here, but none of Mark's is in sight. All packed up and gone. Mark skipped town on Kayleigh, the bastard. And we all know what happens when one mate abandons the other." Kol explained.

"They go mad." Elijah replied. He knew the effects of mating on a werewolf, he was the only one mated himself. Katherine had come from a pack in Pittsburgh and the pair had met when Klaus and Elijah was dealing with her pack. Elijah knew all too well what would happen if Katherine packed her bags and took herself and their two children from Elijah. Klaus didn't doubt that he would have to put Elijah down within the week. "She lives in an isolated part of town; she has no allies in the pack. None that weren't directly related to her mate, she must have felt cut off. Is she upstairs?"

"She's upstairs, all right." Kol's voice was sombre. "Along with a knocked over chair and a length of rope." He added a second later. Klaus' eyebrows perked up and he looked up to the ceiling, not enjoying the idea of being directly underneath a dead woman.

"She's dead?" Elijah asked in disbelief. Kol nodded.

"Not for too long. She must have done it before the full moon when everyone would be too busy to notice that she was gone." Kol commented.

"Poor girl." Elijah breathed, sighing heavily and pacing a few steps as Klaus watched his brothers unfold. He looked over to the picture frame once more, complete bliss and happiness was personified in Kayleigh. Her smiling face, her bright eyes, her loving look. Could all that be undone by just walking out the door? Klaus shook his head. Childish obsessions did lead to unknown heartache, he thought to himself. "Any trace of Mark?"

"No, but I imagine that if her old pack ever see him, they'll kill him. If of course he survives losing his mate. He's going to have a tough 48 hours regardless. First couple of days are the hardest they say, like smoking and dieting." Klaus interrupted, going to the collection of drinks and pouring a glass of whiskey. It was cheap stuff, but whiskey seemed appropriate at such an occasion. Klaus had just lost two members of his pack, after all.

"Yeah, that's a little strange; why would a man just up and leave his mate?" Kol asked.

"Sometimes the chance you'll survive the separation is more appealing than being with your mate in the first place. We've seen it before, sometimes people don't like the idea of being mated. Just because you're being lumped together with someone doesn't mean you're instantly as nauseated and lovesick as Elijah….God, I hope I never get a mate. Being so dependent on someone would be my worst nightmare." Klaus commented, finishing off the glass of whiskey.

"Who would want to be mated to you?" Kol quipped.

Klaus glared at his younger brother and put the empty glass aside. "We should drive to Kentucky and deliver the body. Her family will want to put her to rest."

"I agree. It's the least we can do for not intervening earlier." Elijah insisted. Kol looked disapproving of this plan and Klaus just sipped at his whiskey, handing the second and third to his brothers when they approached the makeshift bar. Their silence obviously irritated Elijah, and he turned on Kol. "You would want someone to do it for Rebekah if she ever found herself in this situation." He told his younger brother through gritted teeth.

"You forget that Rebekah would kill Stefan if he tried to walk out on her. Not that he would with that cosmic mate connection. They got lucky." Klaus drained the glass once more. "It's more than five hours drive to Kayleigh's hometown, so we best get on the road."

* * *

Caroline turned off the shower water as the last of the dirt disappeared down the drain, shivering in the cold as she stood in the cubicle. Full moons were so messy, but today had been particularly grubby time. She'd woken up completely covered in mud due to the rain that had poured all night, clinging to her fur and eventually the mud joined it. Caroline grabbed her soft, cotton towel off the side and wrapped it around her body, letting it soak up the moisture clinging to her flesh. She sighed heavily and stepped out the shower, beginning into the bedroom.

It was a tiny thing, as was the rest of her apartment. Caroline used a second, smaller towel to dry her long blonde hair to prevent it dripping onto her back once more. The morning air was freezing her bedroom, as she'd left the windows open all night. Caroline threw the towel aside and went to the window, taking in a deep breath of the clear Kentucky air before shutting and locking the window.

Her phone rang on the nightstand, breaking her from her silent ghosting of the apartment. The sound startled her but she quickly brought herself together and collected the small device and held it to her ear, checking the ID as she did. "Hi, Katie. Sorry, I just got out the shower." Caroline told her colleague as she went to the cupboard to try and pick out an outfit.

"That's fine. Look, I know it's your day off but I wanted to ask if you could possibly cover my shift today? Maisie is down with the chicken pox and I don't want to leave her alone, my mama's never had it see. You can say no, I'm sure Gordon can cover." Katie was twenty years older than Caroline, short, stacked, red hair with two kids. Her husband left two years ago when Maisie was just born and she'd been working as a night receptionist ever since. Her mother looked after the kids at night. Caroline knew more about Katie and her yapping when she came to take over for the night shift than Katie knew about Caroline. In fact, she doubted the older woman knew her last name. "It would do me a huge favour." She added.

"No problem, really. I'm happy to do it." Caroline spoke down the phone as she held a shirt up to her torso, examining it in the mirror she'd hung on the door. After a few more seconds, she hung it back in the small and squeezed cupboard. "Just tell Maisie I said to get better."

"Thank you, Caroline! Thank you so so much! I just hope I'm not taking you away from anything important!" Katie trilled down the phone happily and so loudly that Caroline had to move the phone a few inches from her ear or risk being deafening. Caroline grimaced and waited for her to calm down before she replied.

"No, just me and the sofa and a movie." She assured her. "Tell Gordon I'll be there at 7."


	2. The Spark

**So, much like The Originals, I'm going to post two parts in quick succession to get you hooked on its brilliance, then force you to wait a week for the next one. Muhahahahaha. I'm glad everyone is enjoying this story so far, and I'm glad that so many are fans of the original drabbles. If you haven't, that's fine, they'll all appear as chapters but slightly modified as I've altered timelines, fleshed the plot out and bored my betas to death with stupid little details that nobody cares about. On that note, thanks to Kaitlin (the wifey), Lani and Miranda for being amazing betas and not telling me to shut up. Yet. I won't hold my breath. **

**Enjoy! **

* * *

Klaus stalked out of the quaint Kentucky house hours later, trying to get himself under control. He was notoriously hard to control around full moons, an after effect of his transformation. His sensitive hearing could still pick up the loud, unforgiving sobs of Kayleigh's mother, who had been doing so for the past half an hour. She had five children; her now deceased daughter was the only girl and the youngest of the bunch. She hadn't taken the news well. The Mikaelson brothers had tried to be as calm and respectful as they could be, but the grieving family were very quick to blame Klaus for negligence of their daughter, which led to her body being returned to them today instead of her.

That was what made him angriest. He had a large pack, one of the largest in the states, if not the world. He couldn't babysit every single pack member; he had to think about the collective over the individual. Kayleigh had made the decision not to tell anyone that her mate had been gone for well over a week and suffer in her insanity until it killed her. Klaus had to promise that Mark would not go unpunished before leaving, but he knew full well that the pain of losing his mate, even if he had abandoned her would be punishment enough. He would probably be dead within the week.

Kayleigh had been unlucky. Being mated didn't mean that you were in love with your mate. It meant that Nature or God or the Universe, whichever of the three you were most inclined to blame, has picked the pair of you to spend your lives together whether you like it or not. Most people were lucky or made their relationship with their mate work, like Elijah was lucky with Katherine and now they were disgustingly in love. Klaus knew mate pairs who lived together but not as a couple; they tolerated each other because they were dependent on each other for their sanity and lives.

A few minutes later, Elijah followed him out in a calm and reserved manner, tagged along by Kol as Klaus stood by his car impatiently. "Well, that could have gone better." Kol commented as the two brothers began down the porch steps and towards the car, joining the middle brother.

"There is no better or even good way that you can tell a woman that her child is dead. And because of the man her daughter probably trusted most in the world." Elijah insisted as they got back in the car, Klaus sat in the driving seat, Elijah in the passenger side. Kol stood by the car and leaned in the open window of Elijah's seat, leering at the car he'd driven up in, much larger to suit their purposes of transporting a body without sticking the girl in the trunk of Klaus' car. They were all only glad that they weren't pulled over by police because that would have made for an interesting story.

"I need a drink." Klaus insisted, starting up the engine.

"Niklaus, we should really be getting home." Elijah insisted tersely, obviously anxious to get home to his mate and children. Klaus glanced over his brothers with his alpha look.

"What we really should be doing is driving to the nearest bar and ordering a scotch, because if I have to sit in this bloody car for hours again, I'm going to drive us off the road to stave off the boredom. And if we become unfit for the operation of motor vehicles then we'll find a motel." Klaus barked as the car sat idling in the driveway. Elijah looked unconvinced but Kol looked elated by the idea of getting hammered and postponing his second bout in the stupid, clunker car. "I'm the one making the decisions, Elijah. If you don't like it, you can drive back in Kol's car and we'll join you back home in the morning." He added tersely.

Elijah stared between his two brothers, trying to decide between the lesser of two evils. Leave his brothers unattended in another state with the obvious intent to get drunk or go another twelve hours without his mate and children, the longing nagging at the back of his brain. The decision waned on him visibly until Kol tapped the top of the car impatiently. "Come on, 'Lijah. You're wasting daylight." He prompted, almost bouncing on his toes like an impatient child.

"One drink." Elijah asked Klaus, ignoring Kol.

"One." Klaus lied.

* * *

Caroline rarely ever took the night shift, for obvious reasons. She was the day receptionist and Katie was the night receptionist. They rarely switched places. Katie was happy to work the night shift, and let Caroline go at 5pm every evening. Enough time to get away on full moons to change, even in the dead of winter when the nights were long and the days were short. When she was asked, she just made up excuses like parties and weddings and plans, even though she never spoke of friends or plans otherwise, but it was rare they asked her to cover on full moons.

The blonde sighed and scribbled in her notebook as she sat behind the desk that they all but chained her to for her shift, just in case some poor soul decided that this little motel on some highway leading into West Virginia from Kentucky was a good option for a bed. At least she had Temple Run to keep her occupied as it was rare that anyone checked in this time. Only travellers at these times that just wanted to be in bed so were quick and curt. Caroline liked that better than the ones that prattled on incessantly.

She looked up at the clock that read 1am, she was on shift until half 3 in the morning today. Then the manager took over and she could go home and sleep, ready to do the day shift at 11. Normally she'd start at 9 but Gordon, the manager, had made allowances for her new plans. She sighed and leaned back once more, taking a sip of her coffee from the awful staff room machine. It tasted dirty and rusty, but it kept her awake. She looked around once more, the small, dank, little foyer was empty and void.

The moon was still high, light from it shone into the foyer through the window but it wasn't full today. It was waning slowly towards the new moon as the cycle started again. Caroline had been a werewolf a full year now. She'd gone out to celebrate her 19th birthday two months ago, but this year she'd celebrated herself. After turning, her friends had gone to college, promising to keep in touch but as we all know too well, that was an empty promise. Caroline moved from the town she'd been stuck in all her life and found a job at the motel, found an apartment between the motel and the woods and focused on getting used to her new life.

She'd met other werewolves in her year but not for long, they gave her information she asked for but she was still pretty clueless about a lot of things. They gave her tips for how to handle the pain of transformation, promising her it would get easier which it eventually did. The first time is always the most painful, they say. Caroline was content living like this. It was a system, it worked. She had adapted to her new lifestyle, the one she didn't even know she would be living.

Caroline couldn't help but wonder what her first full moon would have been like if her mother and father were still alive. Would they have told her when she was young? Would she have just known what she was all her life, prepared for it? Would her mother have held her hand during the pain and been waiting for her when she returned to human form with warm clothes and a smile? Would she be part of a pack now, rather than a lone wolf? Caroline sighed heavily and took her eyes away from the moon, putting the next full moon out of her mind and began drawing pictures on her notepad.

Looking back, it must have been fate that Katie's daughter was sick that night and that Caroline took that shift, otherwise she would have missed what happened next. She would have gone on a completely different life path. Caroline didn't even like to think of what would have become of her had she denied the shift that night.

She heard the sound of laughter before the door to the reception area swung open with its trademark ding to indicate a new customer. Caroline looked up from her doodling and found herself staring at three men, obviously brothers from their dark hair and matching dimples. All of them were reasonably tall and well built, none of them were unattractive. They were also what seemed to be giddy on what must have been a few drinks, but they certainly were not drunk.

The youngest, or who looked youngest, was the least steady on his feet and the one she presumed was oldest helped keep him upright with a hand on his shoulder and another on his arm, a smirk plastered on his face. The middle brother laughed at his brother, none of them had acknowledged her yet. Why should they? She was the faceless receptionist they would never see again after tonight.

She could smell it on them. Werewolves, the lot of them. The scent was stronger from the two older brothers. Caroline found her body rising to her feet before she could stop herself, like a cosmic power was forcing her to stand. An alpha and a beta. Her mind buzzed with excitement, that little part of her that was a werewolf, that didn't suppress her instincts. She was an omega wolf, and she had only ever met omega wolves, fellow wanderers. She'd never met a pack wolf, let alone its leader.

She assumed the eldest was the alpha. The first born son of an alpha had the strongest tendencies to become alphas themselves, whilst the second born was more likely to become the beta. In theory, anyone could become an alpha by killing an old alpha and taking their pack for their own, but it was rare as Caroline had learnt a few months back, and pretender alphas as they were called never lasted long. She pressed her lips into a line. Her eyes flickered to his hand, noticing something very strange for a werewolf. He was wearing a wedding band. Werewolves didn't see themselves as humans so they didn't believe in human marriage almost. It was breakable compared to the bond of mates. That was what an omega wolf had told her a few months after her first turning, words muttered across bed sheets after a tumble in between them. Was he married to a human?

The other two had no wedding rings but that didn't mean they were unmated. Caroline wondered if they could smell it on her, which they probably could, would any of them try anything on with her? That was the usual response when a wolf rolled into her motel on occasion, they took one whiff of her female wolf scent and it was like a switch in their minds that sent their body into lust mode, some sort of automatic response for survival of the species, she guessed. Caroline wasn't a nun, she was a 19 year old woman who lived alone with no partner. She jumped on the chance but she never let a wolf claim her, she planned to always be a lone wolf.

The younger brother stumbled and the eldest, tall with dark brunette hair, steadied him, naming him as Kol. Caroline sat back down as Kol was led over to a little waiting room. "Niklaus, perhaps you should get us some rooms." The brother told him as Kol was pushed into a seat, guffawing as he did.

By this point, the brother she assumed to be Niklaus was leaning on the desk and chuckling at the sight of his brother. He had hair that was a little lighter in colouring than his brother's, a peppering of stubble along his cheek and a smirk on his face. Caroline wouldn't dare dirty her mouth with the lie that he was unattractive. "Take him for one drink and off he goes." He chuckled. Kol must have been about 21 whilst she'd just celebrated her nineteenth birthday. At this time, Caroline had yet to lock eyes with any of them, eyes down on the register. "I think that it'll be three rooms. Nobody wants to have to deal with him in the morning. All under the name of Mikealson, if you please." Niklaus told her, pulling out a wad of bills as Caroline began to sign them in for three adjacent rooms.

She turned the sign in book around to let him sign in and handed him the pen as he passed a few bills over to her. Their hands touched through the exchange and that was it. The shock that reverberated through each and every fibre of her being, her heart, her mind and soul was electrocuted by this one man's touch. Caroline nearly squeaked at the jolt of pure electricity that ran through her veins at that moment, but managed to stop herself. It was probably just a build-up of static or whatever rubbish they taught in Physics.

She retracted her hands back, which were beginning to sweat, and rubbed them both on her skirt to try and erase that feeling this man had brought onto her at 1 in the morning. "Sorry about that." He muttered as she went to go get the keys and he signed the registry. Caroline put the three separate keys on the desk, determined to avoid that again. "Thank you….?" He trailed off, waiting for her name as he kept his eyes on the blonde.

Caroline and he finally locked eyes and there it was again. The slash of hormone driven lust mixed with something else indescribable went straight through Caroline. She swallowed thickly as she held his gaze, those perfect eyes. Her mouth went exceptionally dry, she felt dizzy and weak at the knees like she needed to sit down badly. He repeated the motion, his Adam's apple bobbing visibly, and took the keys without even looking at them, eyes still locked on hers. "Caroline." She breathed with her voice low for some reason. She'd felt the pull of her body to another wolf before but this was different.

If she was stupid, she would say it was love at first sight. But she wasn't stupid. It was just lust, she told herself. It had been a while, that was all. Maybe it had something to do with the fact he was a beta and her instincts just drew her to him.

"Caroline." He spoke her name like a caress, like he was committing it to memory. "Thank you for the rooms."

"You're welcome."

And with that, their gaze broke and it was over. He was beginning over to his brothers and helping his youngest back outside to begin to their rooms. Once they were gone, she held back in her seat and exhaled loudly. What the hell was that? She thought to herself.


	3. The Flame

Klaus couldn't take it anymore. The clock read half four and he needed to know what the fuck that had been about. He needed to see her, talk to her, and find out what spell she had put him under. Klaus had never felt so drawn to a woman in his life, and he had been in the company of many alluring women in his life. But it had never been like that, so raw, so pure, so unforgiving. Caroline. He spoke her name in my head and his heart quickened. Surely this was a drunken lust just getting the better of him, even though he'd felt completely sober since the moment he touched her hand.

He slammed his fist into Elijah's doorway three times; his brother opened the door a few moments later. He was still dressed, but had discarded his suit jacket on the back of a chair in his room. "I do hope there is some sort of emergency, Niklaus." Elijah greeted his brother in an irritated manner.

"How did you feel when you first met Katherine?" Klaus asked instantly and curiously, using the only reference he had on mating that he considered serious. His mother didn't really speak about the earlier years of her and their father's relationship. He knew why. It hurt too much for her to think about her deceased mate. That's why all the pictures, not that there were many, were kept at Elijah's. Elijah was happy with his mate; he would give Klaus the answers he needed. The brothers stood on the landing, though Elijah lingered in the doorway.

"Why do you wish to know? I thought that you never wanted a mate." Elijah commented, beginning out into the cool air and leaning one hand against the metal railing. The air was still around them as Klaus blinked once slowly at how the universe had decided to taunt him. The same day he vowed to forever be against the idea of being mated, he possibly meets his mate. It was a bitter, cruel irony. His silence spoke volumes for his older brother, who looked back to the reception building, the lights still aglow. "The receptionist? Let me guess, you felt a sort of an electric shock when you first touched and when you looked into her eyes, you felt like you would never look away." He guessed, shifting his hands into his pocket.

"Is that how you felt when you met Katherine?" Klaus asked hollowly, his eyes trained on the building where his mate was sitting right now.

No, there was no proof that she was his mate yet.

"Yes. Exactly like that." Elijah replied.

Except that.

"Fuck." Klaus' reaction was instant and un-thoughtful. He ran a hand through his hair and swore once more, but quieter. Klaus turned to lean heavily on the railing and stare intently at the reception. There was one window that they could see into from this angle but she was out of sight. Klaus stopped dead. He wanted to see her. He wanted to look at her, never look away again; he wanted to know she was safe.

"That wasn't precisely my reaction when I met Katherine." Elijah commented. "The girl was an omega wolf by her scent and quite young. 19 at the youngest. Omegas have relatively flexible and collapsible lifestyle, certainly more than a pack wolf so convincing her to come home won't be the hardest job." Klaus looked over. Elijah, ever the planner, the strategist, plotting how they would lure and convince this blonde receptionist to join them in another state for the rest of their lives. "I think you should wait until the morning to go see her. Her scent will be easy enough to track, especially if she is in fact your mate. She's probably tired and tired women don't make the most agreeable. I'll spare you the embarrassment of Kol's taunts until the morning as well."

Klaus was hearing all these words but he was ignoring all of them. He wanted to see her now, talk to her, and tell her how rude she was to come into her life the day he committed to the bachelor's lifestyle. Any other day and Kol wouldn't have a reason to taunt him for the next year. He leaned heavily against the railing as his big brother clapped a hand on his back and wished him a good night, then began back into his room, shutting the door behind him.

Once Klaus was sure that Elijah was gone, he began back down the spiral staircase that led to their floor and towards the reception. He shoved the door open so quickly and forcefully that the man behind the desk jumped. "Sir?" He asked in a trembling voice. Klaus stalked over to the desk and leaned on it with both hands and raised eyebrows at the man who was not Caroline. "Can I help you, sir?" The gentleman asked, his voice steadier.

"The blonde from before. Where is she?" Klaus shot the question like a bullet.

"Caroline? She's gone home. Her shift finished half an hour ago." The man he assumed was the manager explained. Klaus' face fell, she was gone. She had left him here alone, was she an ignorant fool? Did she want to get herself killed? Maybe she was, Elijah had said she was an omega and he could smell that on her too. She was young as well; maybe she didn't understand the severity of the situation. Klaus didn't fancy the insanity that came from separation from your mate and after seeing what it had done to Kayleigh, he was more determined than ever. The manager tried to ask him if he needed any help but he just began out the motel receptionist, slamming the door on the way out.

xx

It was early morning when Caroline got back into her tiny one bedroom apartment. She pulled off her work clothes, a black skirt and a white blouse, with a silver name badge, stripping off in the living room in a rush to be out of those uncomfortable clothes. She shrugged on an oversized T-shirt and some sweats, determined to just sit about watching TV until she passed out. She brushed out her hair and heated up some takeout food from the night before, flicking pointlessly through channels and nibbling at the Thai cuisine.

Caroline was about to go to sleep but that was when she heard it, the doorbell ringing through the apartment loudly. She looked up at the clock, it was half past 4. Who was ringing at this hour?

She pulled herself to her feet and went over to the door, wishing she had a peephole on her door in times like these. A serial killer could be waiting for her on the other side of this door. Not many serial killers knocked but that could be to throw her off, everyone in her apartment building was sound asleep so she'd have to scream pretty well to alert them to her brutal murder. Caroline shook her head at her own paranoia and opened the door slowly. "No, I don't have a moment to talk about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." She commented, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"Damn." She looked up at that voice, she remembered it perfectly. It had been ingrained into her memory forever this evening. "There goes my opening." Niklaus was standing in front of her with that same smirk, same clothes, and those same alluring eyes. Caroline wanted to chuckle at his wit but she kept her face stoic, trying to avoid his gaze once more. She didn't want to be drawn into him again, the loss of her control ebbing away as she stared into his eyes.

"What are you doing here, Niklaus?" She spat the accusation. "How did you even find me?"

"I followed your scent. I was worried about you." He explained, pushing his way into the house casually and looking around at the barely decorated apartment. Caroline rarely had the money to do the place up. "And only Elijah and my mother call me that anymore, call me Klaus." He added as an afterthought as he took a swaddle of pink fabric from where it sat on the side and held it up for inspection. "What's this, love?" He asked curiously, fingering the stitching of Caroline's full name on the soft pink fabric.

Caroline froze when he brought up the blanket. That blanket was the centre of her identity and world, the one thing that reminded her who she was. That blanket was her only connection to her family, and watching him hold it triggered something in her. Caroline sprang forward until she was only a foot from him, snatching it from him. "It's my baby blanket, my mother made it herself when she was pregnant with me." She snapped, smoothing it out like he'd hurt it.

"Why is it lying on your dining table and not in storage with all your parents' sentimental rubbish that they take out and cry over on your birthday?" He asked curiously, cocking an eyebrow as he continued to look around. Caroline knew that he'd noticed it by now; there were no pictures in this house. She had none. She'd never owned a camera besides the one on her phone. "Did all the photo frames take up the space?" He asked. Bingo.

"Not that it's any of your business but I don't have parents." Caroline commented, folding the blanket perfectly.

"Everyone has parents, nobody is-oh." She saw the realisation dawn on his face half way through his new snarky sentence and his eyes went sad and apologetic. Caroline shook her head; she hated the pity she got when she revealed that her parents had died long ago. Poor little orphan Caroline, that's what they were thinking. "I am sorry, I should have realised earlier." He almost stammered. Caroline finished folding the blanket and put it back on the dining table, crossing her arms.

"Is there a reason you're here reminding me that my parents are dead?" She asked testily.

"I was just coming to inquire as to when you'd like to move in." He told her seriously, not a hint of irony or amusement in his voice as he continued to poke around the apartment, picking up objects and examining them, only to return them to their places seconds later. She didn't keep a particularly clean house, clothes strewn all over the place. They both noticed the underwear she'd left hanging out her laundry basket and Klaus smirked at the red lace. Caroline rolled her eyes but quickly replayed the words over in his head. She tried to speak but the words stuck in her throat.

"E-Excuse me? Move in where?" She spluttered a few seconds later.

"Into my house, I can hardly leave you here in this dreary little apartment as we're matched to be mates." He commented like it was the simplest thing in the world, crinkling his nose in distaste when he spoke about her lodgings. Caroline stared at him in bewilderment which he noticed. "I sense that you're confused, love. Let me explain it to you." He spoke like you might speak to a child, walking over and taking her hands. She was too numb and confused to snatch them back, plus it felt kind of nice to have her hands cocooned by his.

"Don't talk down to me."

"I didn't mean to, sweetheart." He commented, bringing her hands up to kiss the heel of her palms softly. Caroline sighed heavily at the feeling of something so intimate, she should want to smack him across the face and throw him out, but the movement felt so right. He smirked and took her hands back down to her waist level. "I thought you were just a regular omega wolf, but it turns out you're completely clueless about your own species too." He added, bemused.

"Well, I didn't know I was a werewolf until my first full moon after my 18th birthday, excuse me if I don't know all the customs." She snapped.

"Well sometimes, a male and a female wolf meet, there is a connection that is there from the moment their hands touch or their eyes meet, like human love at first sight but more primal and real. Those two are matched to be mated and until they are mated, they'll both experience deterioration in their physical and mental well-being through their pining for the other, sometimes until the point of insanity or death as I've seen in some particular stubborn cases. Emotional and physical proximity is needed to ease this sense of longing and wanting." He explained, drawing her closer. Caroline had to admit with every step she felt closer and closer to the home she'd never had.

"How do I believe you? How do I know you're not just trying to get into my pants?"

Klaus just smirked, and pulled her closer and closer still until their lips were on each other's, his arm wrapped around her waist. Normally, Caroline would have already pushed him off and slapped him across the face but the way his lips moulded to hers, the way it felt so perfect and sweet, so right gave her enough pause to start enjoying their lip lock. She slowly moved her hands to his shoulders to keep him anchored to her and the kiss became more and more passionate, like a kiss between long lived lovers, not two strangers

Caroline found herself whining when he pulled away, only a few inches though. "Does that answer your question? Has another man ever kissed you like that?" He murmured cockily.

"You might just be a good kisser, that doesn't mean you're my mate." She commented softly, trying to resist the urge to kiss him again. Her eyes stayed on his lips.

"If I were simply trying to get you into bed, I would have you in bed right now. You would be screaming my name as I made you writhe. As it happens, I realise that you and I are near strangers whereas most mates are from the same pack or neighbouring packs, so I won't try anything until you feel ready for that aspect of a relationship with me." He explained as he trailed his fingertips up and down her back softly, sending shivers up her spine. "Besides, it'll be hard enough to get the pack to warm up to a new alpha female." He chuckled softly.

That last sentence made Caroline stop dead. She stepped away from his embrace and he looked confused by her sudden escape. She automatically wanted to step back into his arms, but ignored the sense of longing to ask her questions. "Wait, I thought your older brother was the alpha?" She asked curiously, looking up at him. "I may not know much but it's always the oldest child who exhibits alpha traits." She commented.

"Luckily for you, you're not wrong, love. But nor Elijah or I are the eldest child of an alpha. The eldest of my father's sons did not make it to his eighteenth birthday, and by that time, Elijah was set to be a beta rather than an alpha so the spirits had to get creative." He told her softly, getting close to her once more. He began trailing his lips along the hollow of her throat, breathing in her scent. She smelt like her vanilla perfume that tried desperately to cover the scent of forest pine and the woods. It was intoxicating. Caroline closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of his lips brushing against her skin.

She stepped back again, trying to grasp at her common sense.

"I'm not going with you." She insisted. "I have a life here, I worked hard for it. I'm not some puppy dog you can call you to your side."

Klaus chuckled knowingly. "I wouldn't dream of it. But you will be coming with me."


	4. The Awful Sound

**Edit: So, I posted the wrong chapter. So you get TWO tonight! Hooray!**

**Thank you guys for all the awesome and amazing reviews, they're amazing and a right pick me up for the middle of a boring lecture. And as always, thanks to my amazing betas, Kaitlin, Lani and Miranda for being awesome and not afraid to tell me what they think. I hope you guys enjoy the chapter and review, and I'll probably post the next chapter around Sunday-Monday time. **

**Onwards!**

* * *

"Well, my answer is no." Caroline insisted, not missing a beat between his promise that she would be coming with him to Virginia and her reply. Klaus' eyebrows popped. Oh, why did the spirits have to match him with the most stubborn and rooted omega wolf in the history of lycanthropy? He thought to himself. Elijah was right, omegas were travellers, and most of them didn't stay in the same place for long, but this girl. She was like a pack wolf, staying in the same place and creating a home for herself but in the absence of a pack. "It's sort of policy of mine not to leave town with creepy strangers who turn up and claim to be my werewolf mate." She added as explanation.

"I was going for mysterious." He retorted quickly when she called him creepy, faking hurt at her snappy comment by putting a hand against his heart. She rolled her eyes. "Love, I don't know how I can make this more clear to you that the pair of us being together is not an option unless you have some sort of suicidal tendencies. And even if that is the case, I like being alive and sane, so I'm afraid that you will be coming with me even if I have to drag you by your hair." He snapped.

Caroline looked angered by his threat, stepping back a few paces from him like he was toxic and going to an old chest of drawers that was pressed up against a near wall. She turned with her back to him so he couldn't see what she was up to but he recognised the click of a gun being cocked.

She turned with the old, metal handgun in her hand to face him. "Get out." Caroline ordered. Klaus put his hands up, palms facing outward and slightly towards her. "The bullets in this gun are pure silver; do you want to see how good a shot I am?" She asked him rhetorically.

"I don't believe you." He replied.

Caroline rolled her eyes and moved her hand to a drawer, pulling out a leather pouch and pouring the contents onto the top of the drawers. A bunch of bullets scattered onto the surface, all intricately carved. She took in a heavy breath and picked one up, the gun pointed at Klaus all the while. Her fingers had barely lifted the bullet an inch up before she let out a shout of pain and dropped it back. It bounced off the wood and disappeared under the couch. Klaus had to fight off the urge to rush to her aid as she still had a gun pointed at him.

His fingers on the same hand that Caroline had lifted the bullet with began to feel hot and tingly and he cast a glance down as she swore at the subsiding pain. Caroline lifted her fingers to show off her new burns and his eyes widened. Klaus could already feel its burn as he looked down at his fingers. He'd felt the pain on a minor level compared to hers, but silver did induce extravagant amounts of agony so it was still lingering in his skin. His skin was un-burnt, completely fine but the pain still lingered in his nerves. "Believe me now?" She asked. "Get out."

"Love..." He began calmly. "I am not joking when I say that without physical proximity, you and I will both begin to lose our physical and mental wellbeing. You'll lose your appetite, you won't be able to sleep, you will begin to hallucinate and lose your mental health. A girl hung herself yesterday because her mate left her. That's how deep the depression becomes." He told her sincerely, making no sudden movements.

"Did you set out to fail in your argument or do you have a natural talent for it?" Caroline asked irritated. "I haven't slept in forever, I've been working since yesterday evening, and I am not in the mood to hear this rubbish about being your mate right now. If you won't leave, then I'll make it easier for the both of us." With that, she turned the gun so it was pressed against her chest. Klaus swallowed thickly and went to get closer to her but she cocked the gun. He froze. His eyes and face was a picture of disbelief. He'd guessed she was stubborn but this was a new level. Klaus could already feel his desperation to keep her safe, knowing that whilst they weren't mated yet, he would feel an intense depression if she pulled the trigger. And he would never have another mate. He would get his wish and never be mated but he would know that he had his chance.

"What are you doing, love?" He asked calmly.

"I can't be your mate if I'm dead, right?" She asked. "Get out." Caroline repeated through gritted teeth.

This time, Klaus threw up his hands in surrender and backed off. When he was a reasonable distance away and starting towards the door, Caroline removed the gun from her chest but kept it pointed at him. He didn't speak another word but he wanted to thank her for not going through with it. Lord help him, he already cared for her, he thought as he walked out the door. She was a stubborn, fiery omega who knew nothing about her own species but that fire was intriguing, alluring and intoxicating.

It was beginning to rain as the sun began to rise in the streets and Klaus began back to the motel, trying to plan his next move. He could only imagine Elijah's reaction when he revealed that he had gone against his older brother's advice and gone to see her, but Klaus now knew the power of the bond he was beginning to form with this woman. He understood why Kayleigh went mad without her mate, he understood why Elijah became anxious being away from his family more than half a day, he understood why Rebekah and Stefan could barely keep their hands off each other. He was going to convince her to come with him; he was going to convince her that she was now the most important woman in his life, the most important person in his life ever.

* * *

To put it simply, Kol laughed when Klaus recounted the story with his brothers in a small, mostly deserted diner an hour later. He couldn't laugh for more than a few seconds without clutching at his temple or moaning at his headache that was induced from last night's excursion. Klaus rolled his eyes and took a sip of his coffee. Kol had a fry up and a coffee, whilst Elijah had only a slice of toast and a cup of tea. His older brother had been wearing a look of disapproval since Klaus had admitted that he had gone to see his mate. "Oh, Nik…I like this girl already." Kol commented.

"Her recklessness is dangerous for the both of them, and what's bad for our alpha male and female is ultimately bad for the pack, Kol." Elijah reminded him tersely between sips of tea.

"But still, Elijah, you have to admit that this is hilarious. The day that Nik decides he doesn't want a mate, he meets her and _she _would rather shoot herself in the chest with a silver bullet then come home with him. Name one thing you can think of that's funnier than that. Oh, I can't wait to tell Rebekah. She'll die laughing." Kol explained, gesturing to his brother who was in this situation with his hands before going to take another generous mouthful of his food.

"You won't speak a word to anyone about this. Especially not Rebekah." Klaus threatened.

"For once, I do agree that Rebekah and the rest of the pack should be kept out of the loop until which time that our new alpha female decides to join us in Virginia." Elijah counselled in his strategist tone, stirring his tea absentmindedly as he tried to stop his brothers from ripping each other to shreds. It didn't help the enormity of this task that one was sleep deprived and moody and the other was hung-over and naturally annoying. "This is something that Niklaus has to do by himself." He commented wryly, eyeing Kol.

"How exactly do you propose I do that?" Klaus asked tersely. "Caroline has made her feelings perfectly clear."

"You could let her wallow and suffer, wait for the insanity to get her then just grab her. Get her halfway to Virginia before the effects of being away from you wears off and by that time, she'll realise that there's no point to going all the way back to this pathetic excuse of a life here." Kol suggested with a shrug. This idea was met with glares from both Elijah and Klaus. He didn't know what Elijah was thinking but Klaus couldn't imagine letting his mate become depressed and harming her emotionally in that way in a way of manipulating and emotionally extorting their bond to get her to comply.

No, she had to choose to come with him of her own free will or their whole relationship would be based on deception.

"That's nice in a lunatic's world but the adults are talking now." Klaus added. "Elijah, what should I do?" He asked his brother.

"The last time that you asked me for advice regarding this matter, you blatantly ignored it and got yourself into this situation. Why should I waste my time digging you out of it and helping you?" Elijah asked him in return, finishing off his cup of tea. Kol, for once, was silent as he ate his meal that was a guaranteed hangover cure for the youngest Mikaelson. Klaus rolled his eyes and sipped his coffee as the waitress came over to ask Elijah if he wanted a refill, eyeing the three brothers with admiration as she did so. Kol smirked at the red haired girl whereas Klaus and Elijah ignored her except for Elijah's polite decline of her offer.

Once she was gone, Klaus replied to Elijah's question, his eyebrows raised and a smirk on his face as he spoke. "That would be because you're my brother and my beta, and you love being right, and you love giving your siblings advice whether we choose to take it or not."

"He has a point, Elijah." Kol chipped in.

Elijah sighed heavily and the two brothers know they had broken him down. He'd probably been devising a damage control plan for Klaus since he'd heard the story. They could see the cogs turning in his head as he put his cup aside and straightened his suit jacket before he began to speak informatively. "First things first, you'll have to apologise to her for your behaviour last night." He told his brother. Klaus nodded but Kol pulled a face.

"Is Nik capable of saying the word sorry?" Kol asked sceptically as he sipped his own coffee. Klaus just glared and gestured for Elijah to go on.

"The girl is young and obviously confused about this and has probably been confused for most of the last year, so you might want to allow her some time to adjust, answer any questions she may have and explain to her that whilst she does not have a choice about being mated to you, the degree of intimacy in your relationship is entirely up to her. And keep the threats to a minimum, I know that'll be a hardship for you but try your best." He added, looking out the window for a second as the sun continued to rise over the streets. The clock on the wall read half 9 in the morning and being a Wednesday, most people were at work so they could have this conversation without many prying ears asking questions.

"And we'll be right here with you, every step of the way." Kol smirked. Elijah on the other hand looked unconvinced. Before they had gone for breakfast, Klaus had heard him speaking to Katherine on the phone, and his anxiety was growing with every hour he was separated from her.

"The pair of you should drive home after breakfast before Elijah starts to tear his own hair out and the pack descends into anarchy, I'll stay here until the situation with Caroline changes." Klaus told them both in his alpha tone that suggested that he wasn't taking criticisms or suggestions to change plans. He didn't know how long it would take to convince Caroline to come home with him, but he couldn't expect Elijah to stay with him for this undetermined period of time.

"Well, with Elijah in such a fragile state, I'll have to drive the car." Kol pointed out.

"Kol, I mean this in all honesty and respect but I'd rather take a bath in wolfs bane than let you drive my car." Klaus told him, standing up and pulling out a few notes to cover their breakfast. He finished his coffee and put the empty cup down. "You'll take the car that you drove here back home and don't tell anyone what I'm doing here until I call you with good news." He told his brothers before beginning out of the diner and back towards the apartment building he'd left only a few hours previous.

* * *

Caroline was walking out her apartment that morning, wrapped up warm against the November chill, when she saw him. He was leaning against a wall of the building as she walked down to the ground floor. The elevator had been broken all the time she'd been there, and the stairs that led from floor to floor were open to the air so they were a little slippery in winter mornings. She gripped the banister to stop herself from slipping. "I'm going to call the police if you don't leave me be." She warned him as she came down the final step.

"I wanted to apologise for my behaviour last night. It was rude and wrong of me to push all that information on you." Klaus replied, pushing himself off the wall and following beside her as she began to walk to her car. Caroline rolled her eyes.

"Yes, it was."

"I wanted to give you the chance to sit down and talk about anything that was confusing you about this situation, or general information about our species. I imagine that your sources on the subject are varied and at some points, inaccurate." He added. Caroline stopped this time, the wind whipping around her. Thank god her hair was pulled up in a ponytail or she'd been keeping it out of her eyes for this entire conversation. She looked him in the eyes and felt the draw, swallowing thickly and almost agreeing to his proposition.

Caroline looked away and shook her head. She had to remind herself to keep her eyes off his if she wanted to keep a clear head. There was some weight to this mates thing, but she wasn't about to become some love sick puppy dog, quite literally. "I have to work. I don't have time for this." She told him curtly and dismissively.

"Take a day off, live a little." Klaus replied, a smirk in his voice. "You worked last night, love."

"That's the thing about work; it's a daily thing so we can pay our bills and rent." She called over her shoulder as she continued to her car, pulling out the keys and opening the little red vehicle. Klaus hadn't followed her to the car but watched with his hands tucked into his pockets as she got into the car, throwing her handbag into the passenger seat. Caroline started the engine and couldn't help but look back at Klaus in the rear view mirror as she began out the parking lot and towards the motel for the daily grind.

Caroline gripped the steering wheel as she drove and tried not to miss him.


	5. The Wait

**Today, I just said, you know screw it, let's upload another chapter! Enjoy my good updating behaviour whilst I'm on a high from seeing the next episode of The Originals (squeals uncontrollably, buries head in the pillows and then composes herself). I thought the Klaroline fans could need something to read and those trying to distract themselves from the drama could use a chapter. I've actually written the first 15 chapters of this story, so I am just diving into writing more chapters to stop myself from getting angry at the drama. **

**Once again, thank you for the amazing reviews, alerts and favourites! Onwards!**

* * *

When Caroline emerged from the reception at five that evening, the night had already descended on the night, the moon in the sky and she was shivering. She pulled her scarf closer to her body and wrapped her arms around her body. Caroline looked up from buttoning her coat to see Klaus was sitting on the bench that sat directly opposite the reception building at the edge of the parking lot, arms crossed across his chest. He was wearing only his Henley and his leather jacket, he must have been freezing. Werewolves didn't feel the cold, but it was below freezing and that was cold enough to make a wolf shiver. Klaus was staring into space as she walked over, her heeled boot clicking on the pavement. "How long have you been sitting here?" She asked.

He looked up, smiling when he saw her. The smile faded a second later and he fixed his face so it was neutral in its expression. He checked his watch. "6 hours." Klaus told her.

"You've been sitting here my whole shift!? Are you crazy? It's the middle of November, you must be freezing!" She exclaimed, almost going to take off her scarf and hand it to him. "Why would you sit here for 8 hours?" She asked him.

He shrugged. "I was worried about you." Klaus told her like it was just that simple.

"I'm fine. I've been alone a long time. You however are at risk of getting hypothermia. Come on, you're coming to my place and getting warm before you have to have your leg amputated." She commented, getting out her keys and opening her car. Klaus eyed her little Honda warily and she rolled her eyes. "Get in before I change my mind and leave you to freeze. I bet being a three legged werewolf will be fun." Caroline told him.

"Fine." Klaus sighed, pushing himself up to climb into the passenger seat as Caroline turned on the engine and blasted the heating.

* * *

"Don't your brothers have anything to say about you sitting in the cold for the whole day?" Caroline asked as she stripped off her coat, scarf and gloves and hung them up. Klaus began into her apartment like he owned the place.

"I sent them home. My older brother was getting antsy being away from his mate and children and my younger was being a hung-over bore." He explained as he sat leaning on the back of the couch. Caroline shivered to herself and crossed her arms across her chest to try and keep herself warm as she went to turn up the thermostat.

"Yeah, your brother is married, that's weird for a werewolf." Klaus popped his eyebrows at this question and she blushed. "I-I saw his ring and thought it was strange."

"Well, Katherine's mother is human so she still has that nature of a human. Her parents were married so she assumes that's the norm and she insisted on getting married as well as being mated when she and Elijah first met. My mother and Rebekah were thrilled to get to plan a wedding." He told her. "And now they have two pups by the name of Samuel and Lily. Elijah gets anxious when he's away from them too long." Klaus added. He hadn't understood that before but now it all made sense.

"I swear this place takes an hour to heat up." Caroline muttered as she shivered and grabbed a zip up hoodie from the hook. She began to pull it on and zip it up all the way, rubbing her arms to try and warm herself up. Her uniform was paper thin after all.

The comfortable silence that had fallen over them as she did this was broken a few seconds later by Klaus.

"How did they die? Your parents?" Klaus inquired. It was a surprising question for Caroline, they had been talking about something completely different. Suddenly he was asking about her parents died. What had even prompted such a question? She asked herself. The answer came seconds later when Klaus glanced over at the file on her dining table, she'd left it open. Stupid girl. She'd been looking through the file earlier and just left it sitting on the table. A collection of all the information she had regarding her parents, including their death. On the top was the article about her parents' death, a black and white picture of them. She swallowed thickly and walked over to the red folder, snapping it shut.

"There was a fire, they were asleep and didn't notice the smoke. They died of smoke inhalation before they woke. A peaceful death considering the circumstances, the police said, the best way to go." She explained.

"How old were you?" Klaus asked.

"3 months old. A man heard me crying and saved me from the fire before it grew out of control. By the time he had me out; the flames were too big to go back in and save my Mom and Dad." Caroline told him, slowly opening the file again and finding the article that praised the man who had saved her. "The town council gave him some sort of award, praised him as a hero of tragic circumstances. Even gave him money." She added, handing him the file so he could glance the article. There was a picture of the man who had saved her and another of her parents. A different one. These were the only pictures she had of them.

"That was very heroic of him." Klaus commented, reading over the article about the man who had saved his mate's life when she was a helpless baby who couldn't help herself. He looked up at Caroline, expecting to see some sort of admiration or respectful look of her saviour. Instead he saw bitterness and heartache, her eyes on the picture of the man. He was a middle aged man in the picture, trucker hat, brunette hair with a half beard. He was smiling awkwardly in the picture but he didn't look happy. "Do you not agree, love?"

"That man killed my parents. Of course I don't agree." She snapped, taking her folder from him. Klaus raised both eyebrows in confusion, prompting her to explain as she clutched the folder to her chest protectively. She looked shy for a second, but reaffirmed her hatred a few seconds later. "I wanted to find him after my birthday but he has no known address. Instead, I found a wolf from the pack my parents were in, called Kelly. She had a son my age and was pregnant with him when my parents were killed. She and her mate apparently tried to get the social services to give them custody of me but you can't exactly cite 'pack member' as a relationship so I went into the foster system. The pack is gone now but she told me that that man was a hunter who set the house on fire to kill my parents. Nobody knows why he saved me, but the pack knew the truth behind the story. He tried to kill other pack members before but my parents were the first he got. She said he must have thought they were blood wolves and saving me wouldn't create another werewolf unless I killed someone." She rambled, putting the file down.

"Yes, well blood wolves are more vicious and uncontrollable than our breed. Nasty things. The less of them, the better." Klaus commented as he began to feel Caroline's depression from thoughts of her parents in the back of his head. It was beginning. He was becoming more attuned to her emotions and her desires, and it would only get stronger and stronger. It would begin to mess with his emotions too. "I'm sorry that you lost your parents, love. I lost my father a few years ago." He added, trying to show that he emphasised and understood her feelings. She looked up from where she'd been staring off into space for the last few moments.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I was 20 actually." He commented, running a hand through his hair awkwardly. In an attempt to connect with his mate, he was now talking about the one man he liked to avoid at all times and one of the most turbulent times in his family's history. "When alphas are forced out, as my father was, without a pack, their body begins to break down and they almost become human. Or that's what my mother always told us. He was fine for the first year, but then he stopped turning and that's where most alphas would go about their lives as humans. But then he got sick, really sick. The doctors obviously didn't know what was wrong with him and he died. My mother became very depressed for a while, so depressed we thought she might follow him as some mates do but with five children to look after, she managed to pull herself together. But she hasn't turned since."

"And you were the one who forced him out?" Caroline asked. Klaus nodded, almost guiltily. She nodded and sat down at her dining table, the chair rotated to face him as he leaned on the back of the couch, putting a hand on the table. "It must have been hard not to blame yourself." She added.

Klaus tilted his head in consideration. "If I hadn't done it, Finn certainly would have when he turned 18." He explained. Finn had been five years older than Klaus and Elijah was three. Retrospectively, Kol was three years younger and Rebekah was five years his junior. Caroline raised her eyebrows in question when he mentioned Finn. He had told her the night before that he and Elijah was not the oldest child but he hadn't named his oldest brother.

"Finn was the first born; he was also my father's favourite. He told us all as much. Finn was a few months from eighteen when he died in a car accident with his girlfriend Sage, four car pileup. She was a wolf too, everyone was certain that they would be mates. And if they hadn't been, they would have been miserable all the lives. My mother and father were devastated. We thought the alpha line for our family would end when my father died and another alpha came along to take the pack from us."

"And that's bad?" She guessed.

"Well, our family have been the alpha family of this pack since the 1800's. Losing it would be losing everything this family has ever worked for." He explained.

"Maybe it's good that you took the pack from your father. And one day, your son will take it from you." She commented, standing up slowly and going to the kitchen. Caroline switched the coffee machine on and got out a mug. Klaus resisted the urge to correct her. Their son, it would be their son. "I do find it rather sexist that a woman can't be the Alpha. You know, take a pack from an Alpha male." She added. Klaus smirked. She didn't know that being mated to him automatically made her the alpha female, made her his equal in authority in the pack and the logical choice to follow him should he die before their children, should they have any, grew up.

"I've never heard of a woman being Alpha by herself but there's nothing to say that one couldn't if they possess the alpha gene, or kill the alpha themselves. But typically, alphas have sons first." Klaus commented, watching as she offered him a cup of coffee. He hadn't slept for what seemed like forever. He checked the clock on the wall. It was just gone 6pm. He hadn't slept last night from the worry, and he obviously hadn't slept during the full moon. Klaus had slept during the day of the full moon. That was just about two days ago. It felt like nothing. He took her up on her offer and she began to pour him a cup. "Besides, I never thought I would have children." He added.

"Did you not?" She asked with an arched brow, handing him a cup of black coffee.

"Rather ironically, I rather recently decided that I never thought I would have a mate, which is open to the implication that children were not part of Nature's plan for me. At least not with a werewolf." He commented before taking a sip. She looked wary, Klaus wasn't surprised of that. He was basically telling her that she was about to become an incubator for his pups so his family could keep their pack. Some reservations were expected. He decided not to tell her that he hoped that he never met his mate, never met her. That wasn't about to woo her to Virginia. She took a slow sip of her own coffee and swallowed it down thickly.

"Well, you have one now," she told him with a meek smile. Klaus' eyes widened in realisation and his heartbeat quickened slightly like some lovesick school boy. She had admitted that she was his mate and he was hers. She was coming to terms with his new role in her life and his in hers. "Look, I'm 19 and I'm new to this. I don't understand any of this but I have this feeling that tells me to stop being so stubborn and just come with you for my sanity's sake. I'm not saying that I want to jump into it and have babies with you and all that, but if I'm going to start to understand this, then I'll probably do it better with you."

"Are you saying you'll come?" He asked. She put her mug down and went to the bedroom, returning with a suitcase.

"I'm saying that I quit my job this afternoon and packed this suitcase this morning." She commented, looking around her apartment. Klaus was surprised by this reveal, seeing as she'd been flat out refusing him this morning. "A part of me wanted to come all along I guess. But all this stuff needs packing up to go to your place or storage and I should probably contact my landlord and-" Her planning was cut short by Klaus walking over to her and grabbing her hips in his hands. His lips collided with hers and she made a noise of surprise.

This kiss was more passionate and electric than their first, prompted by his pure joy that his mate was coming with him. She quickly moulded her lips to hers and moved one hand into his hair. Their kiss lasted a few more moments before he pulled back. Completely on instinct, he pressed a soft kiss to the centre of her forehead. She leaned into the kiss and took a deep breath in. "You were saying?" He asked.

"...I forgot." She told him after a few seconds. "But I made a list earlier."


	6. The Miles Trekked

**100 reviews already? That's awesome! Thank you guys so much for all the reviews, favourites and alerts! **

**I'll keep it short and sweet, today, I imagine you want to get to reading. Enjoy the chapter and I hope you leave a review! Onwards!**

* * *

The next morning, Klaus awoke in Caroline's apartment. He had wanted to set out immediately for Virginia but she refused to let a sleep deprived man who may or may not have hypothermia get behind the wheel of a car she was in so offered up her couch for him to sleep on. He didn't argue with her, he was exhausted so despite the fact that she bustled about like the energizer bunny on crack and her couch was the most uncomfortable thing he'd ever slept on including the forest floor, it didn't take him long to clock out.

When he woke, the place was stripped bare and boxed up. All her possessions fit into about ten cardboard boxes that she'd somehow got a hold of. Four were labelled storage; the other six were obviously for her immediate use and would have to be brought to Virginia. Klaus peered into her bedroom, where she'd passed out in a barren bedroom, the morning light illuminating her features as she slept. She looked gorgeous. She was beautiful, Klaus noticed. At first, he thought it was the mating call blinding him, but his mate was truly stunning with her slender but built physique only a female werewolf could pull off, her long blonde hair and her soft features.

He pulled the door closed and took out his phone to make a few calls. He needed to alert Elijah to where he was and the plan, as well as make sure his brother made arrangements for Caroline's possessions to be brought to Virginia by the weekend as well as her little yellow car. He could hear his sister in the background of the phone call shouting at Kol for some absurd volition of her privacy though it was distant enough to be a room or so away. Elijah assured him that his business in Kentucky had been kept secret but Klaus would have to tell his mother sooner or later. As well as Rebekah.

Klaus was not looking forward to either of those circumstances.

"I think it would be best if you kept your eye on that gun. Especially when she meets Rebekah." Elijah commented as the door to the bedroom creaked open and Caroline tiptoed in fresh clothes and her hair pulled back. Klaus looked up, smiling again and forgetting to reply to his brother. She had no makeup on and she still looked absolutely beautiful. Possibly, more so than she did in her light makeup she wore to work. She smiled meekly at him and began towards the coffee machine. "Niklaus, are you listening?"

"Of course I am." Klaus replied, snapping out of his reverie of admiration for his mate and clearing his throat. "I totally agree, but I'll worry about that when the time comes. Right now, I have some driving to be doing." He added, desperate to wrap up the conversation.

"I see." Elijah replied tersely. "In that case, I'll see you this evening."

"This evening." Klaus spoke before hanging up. He stood up to face the blonde as she poured two cups of coffee into travel mugs and handed him one. "Good morning, love." He smiled as he spoke. Caroline took a sip of her coffee and then unplugged the coffee machine. She smiled a sweet, warm smile with a hint of meekness to it. She clearly wasn't completely comfortable with him yet but all things with time, Klaus supposed.

"Ready to get on the road?" She asked in a tired, unused voice.

"Don't you have any friends you want to say goodbye to?" He asked her curiously as she wrapped a scarf, pink and woollen, around her neck and pulled it close. She slipped on a leather jacket as she shook her head with finality, not looking at him as she did. Klaus paused to look at her. He'd had many people in his life for as long as he could remember, his family, his pack, for a brief time, his school friends, but she'd been alone all her life. Taken from any sort of family and pack she may have had from a young age and forced to live alone and for herself since. He couldn't imagine having no one, not even his family. Klaus took a sip of his coffee as Caroline swung a large tote bag over her shoulder. He knew one thing though; she was never going to be alone again. He would make sure of it.

"Shall we get going then?" She asked.

* * *

Caroline relaxed into the car seat as they sped down the highway; they had been driving for the better part of two hours now. She had spent most of it staring ahead at the changing scenery, not that there was much change, and the cars they were passing. Klaus stayed quiet and focused on driving. Her suitcase with her essentials was in the trunk and Klaus had explained that someone would be bringing her car and stuff up before the end of the week. She didn't really want to know who. Caroline picked at the skin on her fingers as they began towards the West Virginia border.

She'd never left Kentucky in her life, or that she remembered. Her parents had lived and died here, their pack had been here and Caroline had gone into the foster system here. She'd been bounced around foster homes close to the border and through the state but they'd never moved her into another state. Caroline felt a weight lifting off her shoulders as they approached the state line, releasing a deep breath she didn't even know she'd been holding.

"You seem tense, love." Klaus commented, breaking their surprisingly comfortable silence.

"I've never left Kentucky before. That's all." She explained with her eyes straight ahead. Every time she looked at Klaus, she felt more drawn and connected to him. Part of Caroline wanted that, she wanted that connection, that bond to form, cement itself. Part of her was screaming at her, asking her what the hell she was doing, she had fought to be independent all her life and now she was just going to give that all up. Had she gone completely insane?

She needed to change the subject from herself again, that was for sure. "So, let me get this straight…" Caroline started, turning slightly in her seat so she was facing Klaus more than the road stretched out in front of him. "There are you, Elijah, Kol, Finn who is now deceased, your mother and father who is now deceased. Am I missing anyone?" She asked.

"You forgot my sister, Rebekah and younger brother, Henrik." He commented as he took an exit, the blonde nodded. She hoped that they could talk about his family for long enough that he didn't pry too far into her own past and force her to answer some more questions she didn't usually get asked by almost complete stranger. "Henrik is 14, so he hasn't turned yet. He lives with our mother, and as long as you're not a complete bore, he'll like you. Rebekah is 19, but the lucky brat met her mate, Stefan who's from a neighbouring pack, three weeks after her 18th birthday, before her first full moon even. She's very proud of herself for it, not that there's any skill to being in the right place at the right time." He explained.

"Does Kol have a mate?" She asked.

Klaus laughed wholeheartedly and shook his head. "No, but god help the poor girl who gets lumbered with him. My brother lacks the maturity to have a mate yet, our mother says. But should that theory hold true, that makes our baby sister more emotionally mature than Kol, which is a frightening thought." He told her. Caroline smiled at his description of family. She'd never had anything akin to siblings, and here he was with four alive and well siblings who loved him. Caroline felt almost jealous of him. "You'll meet them. Well, you'll re-meet Kol and Elijah." He added.

"I will?" She asked, suddenly her voice flooded with apprehension. Klaus cast a concerned look over at his mate, reaching over to squeeze her knee. Caroline didn't react at first, but she liked the intimacy and the comfort it brought.

"Don't worry, love, I'm sure that they'll welcome you with open arms."

"That has yet to be decided. Maybe they don't want some orphaned omega wolf girl coming into their purebred pack family." She muttered lowly, sitting back in her seat once more so she was facing the front. Klaus sighed and looked over once more. She crossed her arms across her chest and stared ahead with an unclear emotion on her face. "Eyes on the road, I don't want to die today." She ordered him without looking at him.

He did as told.

* * *

Due to traffic, they didn't arrive back at Klaus' old childhood home until late. Klaus killed the engine and looked over at Caroline who had fallen asleep in the front seat. She was curled up on herself, her head lulled on her chest. That would cause neck ache in the morning, he thought to himself as the door to the house opened and Kol came out. Klaus plucked the keys from the ignition and got out, his little brother looking gleeful and mischievous. "So, you decided to drug her?" Kol asked as Klaus walked around the car to Caroline's side.

"She fell asleep. Unlike you, I can convince a woman to do something without the use of alcohol." Klaus snapped back as he undid her seat belt and carefully lifted Caroline from the seat. She didn't stir; her head moved to his shoulder as he kicked the door shut and began inside. "Where's Elijah?"

"He's at home with Katherine. He got tired of waiting for you when he could be reading Green Eggs and Ham to Sammy." The Mikaelson manor as the family affectionately called it was an old brick house. It used to house the entire family but as each of them found their mates; the number of residents had decreased to just Klaus and Kol. Esther had left the house with their brother, Henrik soon after Mikael died, now living in a smaller house five minutes away. Klaus carried her up the steps to the open front door, Kol following behind.

"You know how Elijah hates that nickname, Kol." Klaus told his brother as a warning. He carried Caroline up the stairs and down the hall, pausing slightly to deliberate. Did he put her one of the empty rooms left by his siblings or his room? Klaus sighed heavily and looked down at the sleeping blonde in his arms. Would she think him presumptuous to put her in his bed or would she think him distant and reluctant if he put her elsewhere? He thought to himself. Klaus didn't have time to think because his trail of thought was disturbed by a new voice joining the conversation.

"You boys need to stop leaving the door wide open! Nik! Kol! Where are you? I can see your car in the driveway!" Klaus swallowed thickly. Rebekah's unmistakable shout echoed through the house. Klaus turned to Kol and glared. His brother's sheepish look told him everything he needed to know, that Kol had blabbed to Rebekah and she knew that Klaus had a mate. Not only that, but Klaus hadn't wanted her to know. Klaus hissed at Kol to distract their little sister as he kicked open the door to his bedroom and deposited Caroline on the sheets.

She was completely unaffected by the shouting and the commotion, curling into the pillows and sheets with a happy hum. Obviously, she was more comfortable here than she had been in the car, Klaus thought to himself as he tucked some of her hair out of her face. After carefully and quickly taking off her big clunky-heeled leather boots and putting them aside, he grabbed a comforter he never used from the end of the bed and threw it open over to keep her warm.

"So, this is the new alpha female." Rebekah's voice came from the doorway and Klaus swiveled around to face his sister. "She doesn't look like much." Her voice dripped with contempt.

"Little sister, it's rude to barge in unannounced." Klaus reprimanded her as he walked forward quickly so she had less time to examine and/or wake up. His movement pushed their conversation out into the hallway and he turned only to pull the door to so his mate could continue her slumber without being subjected to Rebekah's prying eyes. Rebekah folded her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes. "What would Mother say if I told her?" He asked with a smirk on his face.

"I did announce myself, that's why you sent Kol to try and distract me." Rebekah shot back, poking one manicured fingernail into his sternum to emphasize the 'you' of the sentence. Klaus rubbed at the skin she'd skewered in mock hurt and Rebekah tried to peer through the gap in the door over her brother's shoulder. Curiosity was clearly killing the cat here; in fact, curiosity was torturing the cat slowly over a number of days to make the dying slow. "I can't believe that you tried to hide the fact that you have a mate from me, I'm your sister! I want to meet her." She insisted, putting on her 'pouty grump' face as the brothers of the family had called it.

"Not right now." Klaus retorted.

"What do you mean 'not right now'?" Rebekah almost shrieked, her eyes widening and her glare becoming more intense by the second.

"I mean not at this moment in time, because other people have lives that do not revolve around your wants and needs, Rebekah. For example, right this second, Caroline is sleeping so keep your voice down." Klaus ordered his sister, tapping his finger against his closed lips twice to emphasise the need for quiet. Rebekah sighed heavily and rolled her eyes once more, clearly at her wit's end with this conversation. Klaus hoped so because he didn't really want to continue this conversation any longer than he had to. "And secondly, she'll meet you when she meets the rest of our family. Tomorrow." He promised in his alpha tone.

Klaus didn't know whether Caroline would want to meet them tomorrow or if she'd feel ready but now he'd promised Rebekah, he might as well have written in his blood.

Rebekah pondered for a second with pouted lips before making a noise that sounded like 'fine' and stalking away. She wasn't completely satisfied but she was placated for now. Klaus knew Caroline was going to be facing a barrage of questions from his family but Rebekah was the one that he dreaded most. Once her footsteps had faded away and the door was closed behind her, Klaus let out a sigh of relief. He didn't wait for Kol to come find him before he slipped back into the bedroom he'd left Caroline in.

She was stretching and whining as her eyes flickered open. "Did we wake you?" Klaus asked as he went to go sit on the edge of the bed.

"Yes." Caroline replied simply, Klaus sighed guilty and apologised as she pushed herself up onto her elbows and looked around. He could see her taking in her surroundings, obviously confused about where she was but piecing it together slowly in her mind from the bits of debris from Klaus' life scattered around the room. The shirt he'd left hanging over the back of the desk chair, the watch he'd left on the bedside cabinet, the book sitting alone and unread on an end table. "It's alright; I'm a light sleeper...So this is your room?" She asked, arching her eyebrow.

"It is. I know it's not much." He commented, looking around.

"No, I like it." Caroline interjected with a hint of a smile on her tired features.

"I'm going to sleep in the spare room; I thought you might be a little more comfortable in here. The other rooms are a little bare and cold and I didn't want you to get cold or feel uneasy on your first night, especially without any of your things." He explained, trying to cover up the fact that part of him wanted her in his room, his bed to start with. Klaus didn't know whether he had actually intended to sleep down the hall but it seemed that was the plan now.

"Well, in that case…" She replied, scooting over so she was no longer in the centre of the bed and moving so she was under the duvet. Klaus cast a confused look as she patted the sheets in the space beside her and curled back into the pillows, not sure what she was implying with the gesture and trying not to get up his hopes. "I can't, in good conscience, let you sleep in a cold, uncomfortable room whilst I sleep in a bed made for two people." She explained.

Klaus looked from the space beside her to the blonde, unsure. "Are you sure?"

"As long as you keep your hands to yourself and don't snore, I don't see why not." Caroline shrugged before smiling softly and closing her eyes. Klaus chuckled and kicked off his shoes, walked around to the other side of the bed and shed his jacket. He slid in between the sheets and watched as Caroline began to fall back into her hazy slumber, her breath evening out and her eyelids flickering. He wondered absentmindedly what she was dreaming about as the day's events began to take their toll and his eyes began to shut themselves. "Good night, Klaus…" She breathed sleepily.

"Good night, Caroline." He replied just as softly.


	7. The Entree

**I'm currently curled up in my house trying to convince myself that nothing bad is going to happen during the storm tonight, so what better way you think of to pass the time than to post a new chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and I hope that you guys keep enjoying it even to the point of writing a review because they make me smile. **

**For people concerned about Queen of the Quarter, I _am _working on it, but it's a big chapter and most of my energies are going into working on this story because my muse really likes it or my University work. I am getting to write QOTQ about once a week, so it will be posted eventually! Until then, just enjoy this story and reread QOTQ and Queen Caroline will grace your laptop with a new chapter when my muse decides to pull herself together and I have time to write without being exhausting. **

**Enjoy! **

* * *

When Klaus woke the next morning, the bed beside him was empty. He instantly leapt up when he realised that Caroline was missing from beside him and looked around the room, not sure what he expected. He shook his head and walked into the en-suite bathroom, the door was ajar but the room was empty. Had she done a runner in the night? Had she heard something with him and Rebekah or had she lied and his putting her in his bed been too much for her?

Assuming the worst, Klaus swore to himself, and began out the room, the door swinging back on its hinges as he did so. Klaus could smell breakfast and coffee and that only meant that his brother was about to burn something. "Kol!" He shouted down the stairs as he charged down them and turned into the dining room without breaking his stride.

Instead of coming face to face with his brother, he was faced with Caroline.

Her hair was wet and she was wearing different clothes. Klaus swallowed thickly when he realised that they were his. His sweats barely fit on her slim hips and the sleep shirt she'd borrowed from his drawers was miles too big, almost a dress on her, but it was unbelievably sexy to see on her."Kol's still asleep…or he was, but your shouting may have woken him." She told him between sips of her coffee. Caroline noticed that he was staring at her clothes and looked down at herself. "Oh, sorry about taking your clothes; I hope you don't mind. I had a shower and then I was just standing in your bathroom with just a towel and no clean clothes. My suitcase is still in the car." She explained with a meek smile.

Klaus tried not to imagine his mate standing in just a towel but it was no use. He shook his head when she apologised and waved it off. "What's mine is yours." He assured her.

"That's good because I used your shampoo too." She added as she took a bite of bacon. Their conversation was interrupted by what sounded like a herd of elephants coming down the stairs, but what actually turned out to be Kol, clutching his head and shaking it as he did so. "Good morning!" Caroline sang.

"God did not intend us to be up at these hours, Caroline" Kol replied simply as he began into the bedroom in checked pyjamas bottoms and a T-shirt. Klaus was just glad he was actually dressed this morning. His eyes widened with surprise and excitement when he saw the breakfast Caroline had prepared for herself and that there was leftovers in the pan, going over to serve himself. As he filled his plate, Caroline rolled her eyes and took another bite, the morning paper in front of her. It was turned to the business section and she seemed quite interested in what she was reading. "What was all the shouting about?"

It was only then that Klaus noticed he was just standing in the doorway. "Nothing." He assured his little brother as he moved to sit next to Caroline. She barely noticed that he was sat down beside, or if she did, she didn't give it away as she continued to read.

"Uh huh." Kol was unconvinced as he sat opposite Caroline and tucked into his breakfast. "So, today's the big day, meeting the family." He smirked. Caroline froze in her movements for a split second but then continued on, turning the page and taking a sip of her coffee as if she hadn't even heard Kol speak at all. She'd obviously decided ignoring Kol was the best option for easy living, which made her much smarter than others that had come before her.

"You don't have to; if you don't want to, love." Klaus insisted as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Except Rebekah will want your blood." Kol interjected. Klaus rolled his eyes and kicked Kol in the shin to shut him up as Caroline looked up at him. "Ow."

"Well, it's going to happen sooner or later so might as well get it over it. I'm not afraid of them or anything." She told them both, tucking a loose strand of damp hair behind her ear and closing her paper. Caroline crossed her legs at the ankle tightly and took a bite of toast. "Besides, what's the worst that they could do to me?" She asked with a light yet nervous chuckle. Klaus caught on straightaway that she was genuinely asking what they could do to her.

"Nothing, they can't do anything to you." He assured her gently. "You're my mate and therefore you're now one of their own." Klaus told her. Certain members of his family may not like it but Caroline was part of his life now and would be for the considerable future, she would be by his side, his alpha female, perhaps the mother of his children. That is of course if they decided to pursue a romantic relationship together. His family would have to just get over it if they didn't like her background or her, but Klaus couldn't possibly see why they wouldn't.

"Doesn't mean she won't have to pass all the tests. Just like Katherine and Stefan before her." Kol commented between bites, not even bothering to chew with his mouth closed.

"What do you mean? What tests?" Caroline asked, suddenly panicked.

"Kol is exaggerating. He means that when a new wolf comes into our family, there are just certain motions that they have to go through. I'm sure that it's standard with many large wolf families." Kol snorted at the second sentence, not buying for a second that their family was anything like any other family, human or non-human. "You'll just have to meet my siblings, meet my pack but first you have to have tea with my mother." He explained simply.

"Have tea? Is your mother the Queen of England?" Caroline asked sceptically.

"Tea with the Queen of England would be a breeze compared to tea with our mother, Caroline." Kol commented. Klaus almost went to kick Kol again for being such a wind up merchant and making it seem like Klaus was asking her to walk over hot coals rather than sit and exchange polite chitchat with his mother for an hour. God, he did truly feel sorry for the girl out there, blissfully aware of what Nature had in store for her as her mate in Kol. "Stefan still refuses to talk about it, he goes all blank faced when anyone brings it up."

"Ignore him, love." Klaus commented softly, taking her hand from where it sat on the table and pressing a kiss to the back. He didn't even realise he'd done it; it was purely instinct to calm her nerves that he could feel rising. The pair locked eyes and the world went slow for a second, Caroline smiled meekly but then snatched back her hand back and put it in her lap. "My mother just wants to get to know her children's mates before my siblings do, or she'll never get a moment alone to talk to you between their questions. She just wants to get to know you." He explained.

"Okay." Caroline smiled softly.

* * *

A few hours and a frantic rooting around in her suitcase for a curling iron later, Klaus and Caroline were parking out the small cottage like house where his mother and younger brother lived now. She fiddled with the hem of her dress as Klaus turned off the engine and eyed her fidgeting. "Just relax; it's my mother, not the Spanish inquisition." He assured her softly as he took the key out the ignition. As he spoke, the door to the house opened up and out came a teenage boy who looked like a strange mix of Kol, Klaus and Elijah. Their little brother, she imagined.

Klaus got out the door and walked around to Caroline's side to open it up. "Alright, squirt, have you been looking after Mother like I asked you to?" Klaus asked the boy in a cheery tone as Caroline pulled herself out the car. He was short for both a 14-year-old boy and a Mikaelson, but his facial features matched that of his brother's. The boy crinkled his nose when his older brother called him 'squirt'.

"She still thinks that I have to go to school." Henrik replied in the same English accent that all the Mikaelsons spoke in.

"Well, we all did the time. It's only four more years." Klaus assured him, clapping a hand onto his shoulder. Caroline closed the door to the car and stood awkwardly, watching the brothers talk with a smile on her face. Out the corner of her eye, she saw the curtains in the front room twitch and peered over to see the curtains were still. "Besides, if her first five children couldn't convince her to let them drop out, what makes you think that you could?" He asked.

"I'm the baby. I shouldn't have to sit through hours of homework I don't get, I should be out enjoying my youth." Henrik insisted to Klaus' amusement. Halfway through his sentence, he noticed the blonde as if for the first time. "Is this your girlfriend?" He asked his brother with a smirk.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "This is Caroline. Caroline, this is Henrik. My little brother who thinks he's too good for the US education system."

"Hi." Caroline kept her greeting short and sweet, extending her hand for the boy to shake. He gladly took it and shook it enthusiastically. "And it's okay not to like school; I didn't like it very much. But if you don't get something, then maybe I could help you with it sometime. Unless it's Physics, I could never get Physics. It's all just a blur of words like Quantum and Schrodinger." She smiled as she took her hand back and returned it to her side.

"I like her." Henrik announced. "Schrodinger was the guy with the immortal cat, right?"

"Niklaus." Caroline nearly flinched at the new voice that came from the porch steps before she could respond to Henrik's question. She reminded herself not to be scared as she turned to face her mate's mother. She stood on the porch in a simple black dress that cut just below the knee and heels, her hair smooth and down around her shoulders. Esther was a picture of true elegance and class. Caroline swallowed thickly as she began down the steps to her two sons. "I wish you would stop using your siblings as a messaging service, especially for such good news." She sighed.

"In my defence, Rebekah wasn't supposed to know, Mother." Klaus replied as Henrik winked reassuringly at Caroline. The blonde chuckled a little as the older brother and their mother continued to speak, meeting halfway. Esther kissed her son's cheek in a quick peck and cupped his cheek for a second to get a good look at him.

"Maybe one day you'll learn not to keep secrets from your sister or me. It will only ever end badly for you." Esther finally replied after a pause of just looking at her son like she hadn't seen him in years. Caroline bit her lip and looked down at the floor for a second, feeling like she was intruding on a family moment. "Now, this is her?" Esther turned to look at the blonde, giving her elevator eyes up and down. Caroline felt like a bug waiting to be squashed and she wondered whether Klaus even knew what the Spanish Inquisition was because right at this moment, she felt like she was living it.

"This is Caroline." Klaus introduced her as Caroline stepped forward a little sheepishly.

"Nice to meet you." Caroline smiled and spoke softly.

Esther nodded once more, returning the sentiment non-verbally before turning to her sons. "I'm sure that the pair of you can find something to entertain yourselves with for a little while. Caroline and I are going to get to know each other a little better." Caroline was sure that Esther didn't mean for her words to sound like a threat, but it certainly did.

Klaus nodded, clapping a hand onto his brother's back before walking over and pressing a kiss to Caroline's forehead, right in the centre. She leaned into the kiss, not caring if his mother was watching and let the safe feeling wash over her. Caroline took a deep breath in, Klaus' scent filling her nose as she did before he smiled reassuringly. "I'll see you soon." He promised her as Esther began back inside the house. Henrik smiled a dopey grin and Caroline nodded to Klaus before beginning inside.


	8. The Parents

**Much like The Originals, your reviews are blowing me away! Thank you guys so much for your reviews, demands for updates and comments are the best way to make me smile on a bad day. **

**Without further ado, let's get on with the chapter!**

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The inside of the cottage was just as cosy as it looked on the outside but Caroline didn't feel comfortable in the slightest as she passed the boundary of the house hold. She looked around the hallway; there were some pictures on the wall of the Mikaelson brood over varying ages. She spotted a few of Klaus both by himself and with his siblings and wasn't surprised to see he hadn't changed much since childhood. She only counted one picture of Finn with a red head she assumed was Sage but the picture was sat on an end table next to an unlit candle.

Caroline noticed there were none of just Esther or her mate and any pictures that featured Esther did not have her as the focus. There were just typical motherly pictures of her holding the children when they couldn't walk or staying in the side lines in birthday parties, events and candid. It was like her life started when she became a mother or something. Caroline remembered Klaus telling her about his mother's deep depression about his father's death and sighed heavily as Esther called goodbye to her two sons and shut the door behind her.

Caroline swallowed thickly. "You seem nervous." Esther observed gently, the first time she'd seem concerned about the effect of this interview/interrogation on Caroline as she stood with her hands clasped in front of her. She watched as Caroline turned away from the pictures. "Come." She ordered, the moment of concern was obviously short lived.

The blonde followed the older woman into the living room where sure enough a tea pot and some empty cups were sitting on the side. Caroline looked out the window to see that Klaus' car was no longer in the drive. Esther took a seat in a low back armchair and began to pour the tea into both cups as Caroline stood, lingering. She clenched her fists slightly, trying to pep talk herself. Being scared of a woman more than twice her age was stupid. What's the worst that this woman could do to her? She was Klaus' mate.

"Don't just stand there, sit down. Do you take milk?" Esther asked softly.

Caroline did as instructed and sat down on the armchair that was facing opposite Esther's, faced straight on so there was no escaping Esther's glare. "Just a little and two sugars, please." She commented as she lifted her shoulder bag off her body and put it by her feet. Caroline couldn't help feeling uncertain and out of place. She'd gone from her environment of city foster homes to tea with suburban mothers. A mother who once turned into a wolf once a month and had six children who some werewolves would prefer to be called pups, but a suburban mother none the less.

Esther poured a hint of milk into Caroline's tea and handed her the cup. There was even a china saucer for the cup. Caroline set it down and then picked up the tea to take a sip. Esther didn't take sugar but she did add a slice of lemon and began to stir. There was a tense moment as the two women took their first sip and then placed their cups on the saucer. She could sense the burning questions on the mother's mind and waited with baited breath for the questions to start, which they did a second later.

"So, Caroline, where were you born?" Esther asked, obviously a simple question to start off and get the momentum in their grilling going. After telling her that she had born in Berea, Kentucky in 1994, Esther nodded and took another sip of her drink with a thoughtful look. "And your parents?"

Caroline swallowed thickly and took a sip of her own drink to compose herself and try and devise her answer, whilst her mate's mother waited expectantly. "My parents died when I was very young so I don't remember them, I was raised in the foster system. Mainly in a few foster homes around the state until I was 10 and then a girl's home in Whitesburg. When I became 18, I moved to the town where Klaus found me."

"So, until your first full moon, you had no idea about what you were really were?" Esther asked with pursed lips.

"No, ma'am, I did not."

"Until then you acted as if you were human, believing that's what you were. You were a good student but I imagine you had difficulty socializing with humans, making friends which is of course due to your natural psychology as a wolf; the urge to bond with your own kind is too strong and humans are therefore harder to create lasting bonds with, however with no knowledge of your species, nobody had any idea why you had this trouble as you were pleasant, pretty and self-functioning in all other aspects." Esther told her as she continued to stir and drink her tea, talking so casually that every word seemed bizarre.

She continued on. "The foster system would have probably seen that some sort of behavioural disorder, and thus labelled you a problem child, I also assume that you dated, but after your first full moon and you moved, they no longer became a problem and they should remain that way." Esther told her between sips of her tea. Caroline narrowed her eyes slightly. "I'm good at reading people, especially my own kind. You have to be that way when you have six children." She explained.

"I see." Caroline muttered, not wanting to admit that half of what she had said was dead on. She barely had any friends during her school years, and never created any of the deep set sisterly bonds you see in High School, not even with Juniper and Isabelle. It had become so worrying for the foster home that they'd had her looked at by the child psychologist. Unsurprisingly, they'd found nothing wrong with her.

"If you grew up without your parents and without a pack, how did you come about any information about your species?" She asked curiously, arching an eyebrow in a fashion that Caroline had seen in her children multiple times. Caroline sipped at her tea once more, holding the saucer up as she did so she could place it back down when she was done. Esther took a small little jug and poured some amber thick liquid Caroline realised was honey to her cup.

"I tracked down some friends of my parents and they gave me some information about my parents and my…I mean our…nature; they offered for me to stay with them but I declined. I didn't want to intrude on their family because I'd lost mine." Caroline explained. She could sense the irony that she was telling Esther that she hadn't wanted to impose on the Donovan's family when she had just forced herself into the Mikaelsons'. "And I met some other omega wolves who answered some questions that I had and gave me some advice on how to handle the pain." Caroline added as Esther stirred her tea once more.

"I see. Have a biscuit." Esther commented as Caroline put down her cup and saucer, feeling compelled to pick up a rich tea biscuit and take a bite. "And how many of these men did you sleep with?" The older woman asked whilst Caroline was mid bite. She nearly choked on the biscuit, having inhaled a sharp breath and brought some chunks of the biscuit down her windpipe. Caroline coughed to clear her throat and took a sip of her tea for good measure with the additional benefit over having a few more seconds of having a reason not to talk.

"Excuse me?" Caroline asked with her voice still weak from nearly choking.

"I'm well aware of the way that omega wolves interact, Caroline. It's a natural instinct to be sexually promiscuous between omega wolves." Caroline could barely hear what she was hearing. Sure, she'd had sex before she met Klaus. She was a grown woman so even though she'd gone to a Catholic high school at the demand of the girls' home she'd grown up in, Caroline had lost her real virginity before she'd lost her full moon virginity. But sexually promiscuous? She wouldn't use that description. Did Esther think she was just some omega whore? Is that how all pack wolves saw omegas? "It's a simple question, how many male wolves have you slept with? You're matched to be mated with my son, these sort of questions are important." She asked.

God she hoped that Katherine and Stefan had gotten the same treatment, because right now, Caroline felt about six inches tall and incredibly singled out. She cleared her throat once more and took another sip. "Three." She answered, not sure why she felt ashamed.

"And none of these men know how to contact you?" Esther asked. Was Esther worried about Klaus getting angry at her for sleeping with other men? And if she was, who are she worried about? Klaus, Caroline, or those three men? Caroline just shook her head. She knew for certain that none of those men were interested in contacting an eighteen-year-old one night stand as they hadn't swapped numbers afterwards. Esther pursed her lips and took another sip of her tea. Caroline followed suit, sipping a generous glug of tea down her throat now that it had cooled enough that she could drink it without burning her throat. Though maybe if she did that, she wouldn't have to answer any more questions, she thought to herself.

"You're aware that your match with my son is not an option? That your future is here with him?" She asked calmly, though there was a hint of concern. Caroline furrowed her brow slightly, watching the mother's expression. She knew that Esther was genuinely concerned for her son especially since a girl in their pack had killed herself because of a runaway mate. Esther had already lost her mate and one son, Caroline figured she didn't need to lose another due to a reckless mate.

"I know." Caroline assured her softly, giving her a small smile. To her surprise, Esther smiled the tiniest smile back. It only lasted a few seconds, and then her face became set again.

"Good."

* * *

An hour later, Klaus was leant back against the side of his car as the door opened and Esther and Caroline emerged, they were talking amongst themselves. He didn't use his enhanced hearing to spy on their conversation as Esther took both of Caroline's hands, squeezed them and waved her off with a warm smile. Klaus watched as Caroline began down the steps and toward him; the door behind his mother closed. "See? That wasn't that bad, was it?" Klaus told her as she approached him, almost going to kiss her forehead once more but thinking better of it. Small steps.

"Well, it felt like I'd committed a crime for about the first fifteen minutes but then it relaxed a little so yeah, it wasn't too bad." Caroline assured him.

"Don't worry, love, she has that effect on everyone. When you have six children, one of them has always up to something hence the permanent good cop bad cop routine." Klaus commented as he opened her car door and she slipped into the passenger seat. He walked around the other side and got into his own seat as she fastened her seatbelt. "My siblings are waiting at home." He added absentmindedly. Caroline looked over and then forward again.

"Fine. As long as they don't ask me about my sexual history, it can't be that bad."

"What?" Klaus asked sharply, almost doing a double take when Caroline spoke. He knew his mother was overprotective and enquiring of her children's mates but he hadn't imagined that she would ever ask something like that, especially on the first meeting. Caroline just nodded and shuddered as if the memories were terrifying. He chuckled slightly before taking a turn. "I'm sorry about that, love. I'm sure my siblings will be more tactful." He apologised.

"Meaning they'll wait till the third meeting to ask me how many men I've slept with?" She asked with a smile in her voice. Klaus couldn't deny that it was a question burning in his mind but he knew better and had more tact than to ask her after knowing her three days.

"Exactly." He smiled as he pulled up into the drive of the manor once more. Caroline leaned back in the seat and sighed heavily, staring ahead at the door. Klaus undid his seatbelt and took her hand out of her lap, bringing it up to his lips and kissing the back once. It was the third time he'd kissed her today, and it felt so right and comforting when he did. She lulled her head to the side to smile warmly at him as he kissed her hand. "I'll be right by your side the whole time. After they're gone, we can do whatever you want to do." He promised her softly.

"You're going to regret that because I watch America's Next Top Model." Caroline muttered back with a smile.

Klaus chuckled once more and got out the car, before helping her get out the car. The door to the manor opened and Rebekah was standing in the doorway, hand on her hip. Behind her was a gentleman, Caroline didn't recognise but she imagined was Stefan. He was a little older than Rebekah in looks and watching his mate with amusement as she began outside onto the porch. "Well, she's not asleep now so what's with the snail's pace! Come along, what are we waiting for? The Rapture?" Rebekah asked, hands on her hips as she spoke in a testy voice.

"Come on, Beks, she just met your mother for the first time." The man called from where he was leaning in the doorway with ease. Caroline and Klaus began up the porch as Rebekah rolled her eyes and began inside impatiently, heels clicking against the hardwood floors of the hallway. The man stayed behind and offered his hand to Caroline, shaking it. "I'm Stefan, welcome to the madness." He greeted.

"I'm Caroline."

"Oh, I know. Kol's been talking about how you made him breakfast and threatened Klaus with a gun for the last half an hour. Don't feel bad, we all feel like pointing a gun at Klaus sometimes." Stefan explained, casting a glance at Klaus with a smirk. The Alpha looked unimpressed but Caroline giggled at Stefan's words. "Rebekah told me that you were meeting Esther. She's kind of…"

"Intense?" Caroline guessed.

"I was thinking terrifying but intense works too." Stefan chuckled. Klaus watched the pair and smiled to himself. "But after your interlude with Esther, you could use a drink. Come on, before Kol polishes off the last of the beer." Stefan told her, leading her inside.


	9. The Artist's Hand

**So people might notice most of this part from the original drabble but I've revamped it a bit for your pleasure. **

**Thank you once again for the amazing reviews and reaction, it's something that always make me smile. I'm going back and actually naming the chapter now. So, keep an eye out for that in the previous chapter.**

**Happy Halloween everyone!**

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"Your sister hates me." Caroline commented casually as she sat cross-legged on Klaus' double bed, the paper folded into quarters so only the crossword was visible and her reading glasses perched on her face as she filled it out. Her blue reading glasses were the result of Caroline having difficulties reading and the foster home buying her the frames for a dollar in a local drugstore. Since her first full moon, her eyesight had cleared up but she liked to wear the glasses anyways, for comfort.

Her hair was pulled from her face and her eyes were on the page as Klaus came out from the en-suite wearing only some sweats. She was wearing some silk pyjamas pants and a white cotton V neck T-shirt, as well as some comfy looking bed socks. He looked up at her comment about Rebekah and furrowed his brow.

"You just met her an hour ago; she can't hate you that quickly." He insisted. "Did she tell you this?"

Caroline rolled her eyes and looked up at Klaus with a bemused look, her eyes meeting his over the frame of her glasses. Klaus smirked at how sexy she looked with the frames perched on her nose. "I'm a woman, she's a woman. We send each other signals so she doesn't need to tell me. I just know that she hates me. I know that she thinks I'm white trash and you deserve better as your mate, just from the way she was looking at me today. Like the flesh might melt off her face from the hate she was directing at me." She explained before going back to her crossword, pursing her lips as she held the paper up. "Do you know any 8 letter words for brave? Ending with an S?" She asked him.

Klaus pondered for a second as he sat down on the bed, abandoning his task of drying his hair with a towel. "Valorous." He supplied. "I'm sure you're exaggerating, love. She just doesn't know you yet, and Rebekah doesn't like unfamiliar things." Klaus assured her.

"Valorous works. And no, I'm not." Caroline told him as she filled in some spaces with her pencil before tapping the top against her lip softly as she tried to figure out the next word. "She hates me."

"She's not used to another girl in the family, besides our mother and Katherine. Before Katherine came into the family, she was babied by everyone, and still is. You're stealing all the attention from her. Rebekah really hates when her brothers have another woman in their life who might steal her place in their hearts." Klaus told her softly, trying to reassure her. "She and Katherine didn't get along at first, in fact, Katherine has a scar on her hip from when Rebekah tried to take a swipe at her one full moon and Elijah was so angry that-"

"How is this supposed to make me feel better?" Caroline asked curiously, interrupting his trail of thought. Klaus chuckled and Caroline giggled slightly, tapping her pencil eraser against the newspaper as she ducked her head for a second. "Are you trying to say that I should let your sister attack me on the next full moon and then she may accept me?" She added as an afterthought.

"If Rebekah touches a hair on your head, full moon or not, I'll lock her in the basement until next Christmas." He assured her firmly. Caroline furrowed her brow, a little crease forming between her eyebrows at this comment. Klaus rubbed circles into her jaw with his thumb and smirked at her shock at this threat. Caroline didn't have siblings; she didn't understand the way that they functioned.

"I'll talk to her later but Caroline, I can assure you that she'll get used to you; she might actually enjoy having a girl around who's around her age." He reassured her gently, kissing her lips softly after speaking. She sighed heavily. The more time he spent with Caroline, the closer he got to her, the more and more connected he got to her and her emotions.

"How can you say that she doesn't know me yet when _you _don't even know me yet?" Caroline pointed out.

"Well, then. We'll have to fix that." Klaus reached over, plucked her glasses off her face, and put her paper aside on the bedside table. He cupped her jaw and kissed her forehead softly before settling so he was more comfortable. He reached over to grab his shirt, the same shirt that Caroline had wearing that morning and pulling it over his head. It smelt like pinewood and vanilla, Caroline's distinct scent. Caroline crossed her legs tighter and shifted so they were facing, Klaus sitting against the headboard with his legs stretched in front of him. "Ask me anything."

Caroline giggled in disbelief and shook her head at his antics, tucking some hair behind her ear as she tried to devise a question. "Um….I don't know….what trouble did you get up to when you were a kid? Your mother kept talking about how much of a troublemaker you were, and that you led Kol and Rebekah astray." She asked.

"That's just my natural leading ability. And there are too many incidents to recall, so many are floating around. My father was far too distracted by Finn and Elijah to notice what we were up to and Mother was too distracted with Henrik to reprimand us so we were sort of left to run wild. But I never got myself suspended like Kol did." He chuckled. Caroline smiled and there was a moment's quiet before he spoke again. "Where did you get the gun?" He asked.

Caroline paused for a second, blinking in shock and looking to her suitcase where she had the gun stashed. Klaus knew that, she'd revealed that earlier but she would know if he touched her stuff, she warned. "It was my father's. Kelly's mate borrowed it from him before he died and kept it. When I came looking, he gave it back to me, thought it deserved to be back in the family." She explained with a shrug. "My grandfather's initials are etched on the handle. They kept it to take down wolves they didn't want around." Caroline added. Klaus nodded at this explanation and accepted it. "What's with the bird tattoo?" She asked.

Klaus looked down at his covered chest where he had his tattoo, smirking at the notion that she'd been looking. "Moment of whimsy when I was 22, always entertained the idea when I was growing up." He explained with a shrug. "First kiss?" He asked with a smirk.

Caroline's cheeks flushed bright red, having suspected for that he would begin prying into her romantic past sooner or later, but now he was using their game of 20 questions for his own purposes. He should have at least offered her a cup of tea first, she thought. "Okay, so there was this guy in the home I was living in. I was 9. He was probably cute for a 9 year olds standards and it was Valentine's Day. He told me that if you didn't get a kiss on Valentine's Day, you would die and this freaked me out so I practically begged him to kiss me. I know, I played right into his hands. It was weird, I think he tried to go for tongue but he ended up just licking my lips." She giggled. "I always thought it was a little coincidental that I went to go to a girls' home soon after."

Klaus chuckled at her story. There was a pause whilst Caroline mused over her next question, trying to catch him out. There were a million questions burning on her tongue that she wanted to know about him, similar to the questions that Klaus' mother had asked her but she didn't want to be too forward or brash like Esther had been. She shifted a little closer to him and pursed her lips in question. "When did you find out you were an Alpha?" She asked.

"I turned the day after my first full moon, I didn't know what was happening at first but that's when I knew. Only Alphas with the gene can turn every day, pretender alphas can't. It was quite a shock to the family when I suddenly started to shift. I think my father nearly died of shock right there and then, his third son was the new Alpha, nobody saw it coming." Klaus said, taking her hand off her lap and squeezing her hand softly. "Then I had the chance to think over what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to start my own pack or take my father's." He explained.

Caroline stayed silent, not needing to ask him what path he'd taken. Klaus filled the silence with another question. "Have you ever been arrested?"

She just gave him a look, and smirked. "I grew up in the foster system, and werewolves have irrational anger issues around full moons. What do you think?" She chuckled. Klaus smirked at her response, but became determined to discover the story of his mate being arrested one day. "Post full moon ritual? Don't pretend you don't have one, everyone does." She ordered him, pointing one finger accusingly at him with her smirk still intact.

"Glass of scotch and a day of quiet." He told her. "I don't like being disturbed on days after full moons. Except my family have dinner together every month after the full moon, it's a tradition that doesn't get broken no matter what." Klaus explained.

"Does this mean I'll have to entertain myself a whole day once a month?" She chuckled. Klaus smiled when she spoke about them as a future. He had no idea what their future looked like, but he liked being reminded that they had one to look forward to together. Klaus doubted that they would be living in co-operation like some mate pairs, but whether they would be becoming a couple was another matter entirely. He wanted to allow himself to hope but it seemed too risky.

"You're welcome to interrupt me anytime you like, love. Day or night." He promised her, squeezing her hand softly. She smiled and blushed red once more, tucking some hair behind her ear from where it was falling from her top knot. The pair sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments, their eyes meeting for a few seconds and they began to experience their first meeting again, the raw pull to each other's. "And your ritual?" He asked to move the conversation along.

"I go for a really long run to get out the excess energy, then eat whatever I fancy." She chuckled, casting her eyes down to avoid the draw to him once more. Her hand was sitting comfortably in his and their entwined hands were on his knee. "What was your favourite subject at school?" She asked.

"Well, I disliked them all equally, except Art. I liked Art, problem being the high school here only has one lesson a week because they don't understand that academia and creative pursuits are of equal importance." He commented. She arched an eyebrow at him; incredulity on her face when he told her that his favourite subject in his time at the prison they called school had been an artistic pursuit. "Do you not believe me, love?" He asked with a chuckle.

"Not in the slightest." She told him. Klaus took his turn to arch an eyebrow and got up off the bed, taking her hands and tugging her up. She squealed at the quick motion and nearly tumbled over from lack of balance, if it hadn't been for Klaus catching her. He didn't say anything, just took her hands and led her out the room and down the hall. "What are we doing?" She asked in a whisper, due to the fact that she didn't want to wake Kol.

"Proving it to you." He told her, pushing the door open. Caroline didn't see anything at first but Klaus flicked the light switch on, revealing a studio packed with paintings. Her jaw nearly popped open in surprise and she stepped inside cautiously as if she might disturb the paintings. They were of varying sizes, styles and themes but they were all beautiful. There was an incomplete painting on the easel of what looked like woodlands. Klaus leaned in the doorway as Caroline walked over to a table where an array of sketches was scattered over it. "This is only a portion of my works, the rest are in a gallery in New York which Elijah manages from here. Rebekah plans the parties and showings there so she feels like she's contributing." He explained.

"And they fetch high prices?" Caroline asked as she picked up one sketch and examined it.

"Some better than others but fair for the art world, enough to feed myself and Kol and keep the manor from falling apart and enough to provide for what I need. Working for yourself is important when you are an Alpha, it's a rather time consuming job so I need an effective way of working that doesn't make me want to slap myself in the face, hence the art." Klaus replied with a smirk as she set down the sketch, continuing to look around. Caroline smiled at his words and stood in front of one of the larger paintings that were hanging on the walls. "Believe me now, love?" He asked, echoing her words from a few nights before.

"Well, it would be lengthy and stupid to fake a passion for art just to impress me." She commented, tilting her head. Klaus smirked, standing behind her and watching her look at the painting. It was of the view of the woods from his studio's window, the windowsill framing the trees. It made her feel oddly trapped, like she could see the woods but not touch it.

"Are you impressed?" He asked.

Caroline rolled her eyes and torn her eyes from the painting, turning to her mate and casting him a look. She stretched her arms above her head and yawned. "I've had a long day of questions and interrogation, I'm going to bed." She assured Klaus before beginning out the room. Klaus smirked and chuckled as she retreated out of the room.


	10. The Morning

Klaus woke up the next morning to the pleasant feeling of Caroline resting against him. Her head was tucked into his shoulder and she was practically pressed up completely against his side. She must have shifted against him in the night because when Klaus had come in, she's been curled in on herself on the bed. Klaus had spent a little time in his studio after Caroline had left, working on one of his newest paintings until he felt the draw to sleep. He'd simply got into bed next to her and fallen straight to sleep. It felt comfortable with her on the other side of his bed, as if she'd always meant to have been there, which Klaus supposed she was.

When she was completely out of it, Caroline looked vulnerable, her eyelids flickering slightly as she slept on. Klaus could watch her sleep for hours, wonder about what she was dreaming once more.

It was a stark contrast from her reserved and guarded look she kept on when she awake. It must have been a natural defence; he imagined that was simply a product of her upbringing. He knew that because he wore that same look sometimes, hiding your emotions because you were constantly being told to be strong, that werewolves don't feel as humans do, that they don't let petty problems eat at them like humans do. But he had to deal with a father that favoured one child over his other five and the loss of his brother. Caroline had grown up without a family. Now, she had one, and he could sense her reservations and her fear to immerse herself in this new group she would be around for the rest of her life.

Klaus stared up at the ceiling and wondered absentmindedly whether they would have their own family. Caroline may still reject him, she may be content to simply live with him, and she may not want a fully blown bond with him. Other wolves would see that as a sign of weakness in the Alpha, having a mate that refused to be with him but it was her choice. He wouldn't be happy with it but he couldn't force her to love him. The mate bond didn't always create the deep love he saw with his siblings and their mates, and the last few days with Kayleigh were a testimony to that fact. He would protect her and care for her always, he knew that much.

The sound of Caroline's breathing getting heavier broke Klaus from his thought, looking from where he'd been staring at the ceiling to the blonde beside him. She was turning in her space slightly. He didn't really have much experience with comforting women; he was more often on the antagonising side of interaction with the opposite sex. Kol and he had since children taken many a delight in winding Rebekah up about her love life, school life, her personality and every other subject under the sun that pushed her buttons.

Now he, as her mate, would be expected to comfort and protect Caroline for the rest of his natural born life. Protecting, he could do in his sleep; anyone who tried to hurt her wouldn't live till the end of the day. But comforting? It wasn't exactly one of his specialist skills. Even with his pack, he was the ruthless one who got things done for the good of his pack and Elijah dealt with the more sensitive subject matter as his beta.

Klaus slowly wrapped an arm around her as she whimpered slightly in her sleep and curled a hand around her shoulder to keep her close, trying to exude a comforting presence. He knew it was practically hopeless that his mere presence would make her feel better, even though he would stabilize her emotions slightly, she may still feel fear or discomfort; he was only slightly less than a stranger to her. They couldn't pretend they were anything else. Not yet.

Klaus sighed and shifted slowly so he was on his back and more comfortable as Caroline began to calm again, her breath becoming slower and more regular. It was barely 5am from the red numbers blinking in the dark on the display of his bedside clock. He could catch another couple hour's sleep. Klaus tentatively leaned over and kissed the middle of her forehead gently to try and soothe her. Whatever was troubling her, he would be here when she woke up.

* * *

Caroline hummed happily, as she came to, a calming and woodsy smell enveloped her. Though it wasn't a typical description, it was a warm scent. She would almost call it comforting. Her head was against a soft but well-built surface she quickly realised was a shoulder. Caroline frowned and opened her eyes, instantly noticing she was tucked into Klaus' side. Had he brought her up against him in the night?

She sat up and looked around, trying to go over the sequence of events that had led to her sleeping against the stranger who had threatened her just over a day ago, yet she felt almost completely content and settled. It seemed too outrageous to be true. Caroline ran her hands through her hair and looked back at a sleeping Klaus. His head was tilted towards her and the dim morning light filtering through the curtains lit up his features. Caroline smiled before she could stop herself and looked over at the bedside where he had abandoned her crossword. It was only 7am and it was Saturday, she didn't want to get up just yet.

She slowly moved Klaus' arm so it wasn't wrapped around and moved up to sit against the headboard, taking the crossword off the side and picking up where she left off. Klaus continued to sleep for another couple of minutes but stirred before she could figure out a second word.

"Good morning." She spoke, not looking up from her crossword, in a dismissive tone. This didn't deter Klaus from smiling when he finally opened his eyes and saw her. She could feel her lips twitching with his eyes on her, she felt precious under his gaze. "What's with the cuddling?" She asked absentmindedly.

"I'm a man, I don't cuddle." He replied, closing his eyes.

"Uh huh. Well it looked suspiciously like cuddling to me." Caroline smirked as she looked over at him once more. He was lying back with his eyes closed and a small smile on his face. There was a brief pause between the two where the only sound was Caroline tapping the pencil against the paper. "Is it an Alpha thing or just a man thing to not embrace their gentle sides and admit they like to cuddle?"

"You've had many experiences with men refusing to cuddle or confess to such a crime in your bed, love?" He shot back playfully, though she could feel the hint of jealousy in his voice. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him shift and open his eyes.

"Well, that's a brazen question. How many women have you had in this bed?" She asked, arching a brow. In the last 24 hours, Caroline had been subject to a lot of lewd and enquiring questions and now she was giving them a taste of their own medicine. It tasted uncomfortable and like you wanted to choke on the biscuit you had in your mouth. Klaus was silent for a few seconds. "Oh my god, you were a total slut weren't you? You can say so, being confident in your sexuality is empowering. That's what Oprah says. I don't care." She giggled. Caroline's chest tightened when she told him that she didn't care, a part of her did. How stupid was that? Instead of focusing on her irrational jealousy, Caroline put her eyes back on the crossword.

"13 down is quantum." He commented. Caroline smirked at his lack of answer.

"Someone's dodging the question." She sang lightly as she continued to complete her crossword. "Okay, if you won't tell me whether you were a dirty harlot, at least answer me one question...does your pack think badly of me because I'm an omega? They all seem to say the word like you might say the word 'bills' or 'prostitute'" Caroline offered as a compromise, looking down at him with a crinkled nose.

"Interesting selection of examples there, love." He commented, sitting up and throwing back the covers so he could stand. The phone on the bedside table buzzed and he reached over to check it before continuing with his getting ready for the day. "It's just a product of their upbringing. Pack wolves grow up with strong bonds to tie their pack together, and loyalty towards their alpha. It's just the natural state of a wolf to them so when a wolf has no pack or alpha, you're basically this lawless castaway and they don't understand how you can function alone." He explained as he went to the walk in wardrobe and pulled out a shirt and some jeans. Caroline watched him, not even bothering to avert her eyes when he pulled the T-shirt he'd worn to bed over his head, revealing his toned and tattooed chest.

"Pretty easily. I'm just not ultra-clingy like you pack wolves." She grumbled the second part under her breath but Klaus heard anyway. He smirked before he disappeared from view behind the door of the wardrobe for some privacy. Caroline frowned but put her eyes back on her crossword to distract her. "Am I ever going to meet this pack of yours? Since I am the alpha female now, apparently." She called out so Klaus could hear her as she pencilled in another word.

"You will, love; it's part of the mating process. Every wolf that comes into our pack has to meet their mate's family then the alpha then the pack; it's just how we 'ultra-clingy' pack wolves do it." He smirked as he came out behind the door fully dressed and sat perched on the bed beside her. She put her crossword down to give him some attention. "But as you've already met the alpha, you get to miss a step." Klaus added.

"Has an omega ever come into your pack before?" She asked.

"A few come into the pack every now and again, I've only had two join the pack since it became mine but never as the mate of a pack wolf, not to my knowledge anyway, love. But it seems that there's a first time for everything." He told her honestly as he buttoned up his shirt. Caroline nodded and put the crossword aside, stretching her arms above her head to wake the muscles up. Klaus looked her up and down with a smile. She smiled meekly as she lowered her arms into her lap. "It may seem stupid to you how we work but your life is pretty strange to us." He chuckled.

"_Mine_ wasn't by choice." She commented.

"And we had a choice how we were raised? We're raised in our pack from birth, and the only way that a wolf ever leaves the pack is by joining their mate's pack or becoming an omega. Everything we know is in our pack, people who know what we are and accept it; not a lot of people would give up that security for a lifetime of secrecy and loneliness." He retorted. Caroline pulled a face and looked down for a few seconds; she didn't want to admit that she had been wrong. Caroline hated admitting that she was wrong in any aspect of life. She was stubborn like that. "You may think it's strange from an outside perspective but you'll grow to love it, enjoy the security." He assured her.

"They're not going to reject me because I'm a mutt omega wolf?" She asked him.

"They couldn't reject you if they want to; you're their alpha female now, that's how it was always meant to be. Werewolves may not believe in human marriage or any of their trivial human conventions, but they believe in fate and the overwhelming power of mate bond." He told her softly, cupping her jaw so she would look at him. Their eyes met and once again, there it was, that draw to each other. Caroline smiled affectionately and warmly at his words of reassurance. "And love, if you're the mate of an alpha, and you have two werewolf parents and the capability to be an alpha female, you are the farthest thing from a mutt you could ever be." He smiled.

Caroline didn't speak, she just smiled softly to prove she was consoled by Klaus' words and leaned slightly into his touch as he cupped her jaw line with one hand. He leaned over and kissed the centre of her forehead once more, as he had when she slept and the day before with his mother. His phone beeped on the side again. "That's Stefan, there's a slight issue that I need to see to. Neighbouring pack member is accusing us of crossing territories during the full moon. Its Stefan's old pack so he wants to help out." He explained, breaking away from Caroline to check the text then stand up.

"Nothing terribly exciting then?" She asked.

"It'll take a few hours to settle, nothing more. Your stuff should be delivered later; you're more than welcome to rearrange the wardrobe to make room for your clothes and such. Unless you want to move into one of the guest rooms, if you'll be more comfortable there." Klaus said, eyeing when he spoke about her moving down the hall and hoping that she wouldn't.

"It's fine, I like it in here. Having room for my clothes might be a nice change." Caroline smiled with a glint in her eyes at having a full reign of a walk in wardrobe. Her old closet barely fit her clothes in it due to its tiny size. She didn't want to admit that she just wanted to be close to Klaus, and she was truly comfortable in his room with him. Klaus grinned for a second before fixing his expression once more and beginning to speak again.

"Kol will be here if you need anything, or you have my number. Let me know if you need anything, sweetheart." He assured her.

"I'm a big girl, I can handle myself." She chuckled, picking up the paper once more. "So, get gone and maybe I can finally get this done." Caroline quipped. Klaus chuckled and picked her free hand up; squeezing it once and kissing the back before letting it drop back down and began out the room.


	11. The Cold Hard Truth

**Over two hundred reviews that's absolutely mad! I can't with you all! Thank you guys so much for your support both here and on my tumblr, where I have been teasing you all mercilessly for days and yet you all still stick around. It's absolutely awesome to see so much support for something that once existed inside my head. Anyways, onto the story, and the Original Groupies amongst us may recognise a couple of characters who will live forever happy in my fanfiction together because that's what fanfiction is for, right?**

**Enjoy! Hope you read and review!**

* * *

True to Klaus' word, Caroline's yellow car pulled up about 9am along with a van behind it. She was long washed and dressed at this point so she almost ran out to meet her baby and her things. A black haired woman with coffee coloured skin, only a bit older than Caroline, got out of the car and threw the keys to her with a coy smile. "This car is a nightmare to drive. The gear stick needs a lot of muscle and the clutch is more sensitive than a baby's skin." She grumbled though the grin stayed in place. Caroline caught the keys and chuckled.

"She may be difficult, but she's my baby." Caroline commented, stroking her hands along the hood of the car affectionately. She had truly missed her car. "You have no idea how many shifts I had to work and how many drinks I had to accept from strangers to afford to pay for her."

"You're right. I probably don't. I'm Katy by the way. That's Thierry in the van." The girl replied as a guy about the same age as her jumped out the van and began around to the back. Caroline rolled the sleeves of her checked button up and went to tie up her hair. The man of the pair opened the back of the mid-sized white van and there was all her stuff. She jumped up into the back and grabbed the first box that was labelled clothes. It was one of three that was labelled so.

Before the pair did anything else, Katy rushed over to Thierry from where she'd stood by Caroline's car, went onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his like they hadn't seen each other in years. He smiled against her lips and wrapped an arm around her waist. When they pulled away, Caroline was getting down with the first box and putting it on the sidewalk, trying to give the pair some privacy. "Thierry and I can help you unload if you like." Katy spoke again.

"Um, you're sure you don't mind?" Caroline asked.

"Well, we've driven five hours to pick up your stuff, stayed the night and five hours back, we might as well spend the next ten to fifteen minutes unloading." Katy shrugged with a smile as Caroline pulled herself back up into the van, as all the boxes were pushed right inside to stop them falling against the door during transit. Thierry had an arm wrapped around Katy and was running his fingers up and down her back. They were obviously mates, Caroline thought to herself.

"You travel pretty heavy for an omega." Thierry commented, almost in a judging tone. Caroline eyed him as she continued to unload her possessions.

"Thierry, don't be rude." Katy reprimanded before muttering something so lowly that Caroline couldn't hear. She probably could have with her werewolf senses but she didn't want to intrude. Regardless, she definitely heard the words 'alpha' and 'Klaus'. In this time, Kol was beginning out slowly to the curb to watch them unpack as the couple began to help. "Planning not to be helpful as always, Kol?" Katy asked as she handed a box to Caroline.

"You three seem to have it covered. I wouldn't want to break your work flow." Kol retorted as he began to poke around the boxes and eye Caroline's car in disdain. Caroline rolled her eyes as she picked up a box of her clothes to carry inside. Kol leaned against the streetlamp and made no effort to help any of them as they carried in the boxes to the hallway. He occasionally made comments to which Caroline just glared and followed them inside but other than that, he was useless. "It's the beginning of the end when a girl moves into this place." He sighed with a crinkled nose, looking around the boxes.

"Besides your mother and Rebekah, you mean?" Caroline asked as she put her final box down on the floor and turned to Thierry and Katy. "Thanks for helping."

"It was no problem. We'll see you…when we see you." Katy grinned before a smirking Thierry pulled her away. He tugged her into his side and kissed her hair as they began down to the van, climbed inside and drove off. Caroline smiled at how sweet they were and closed the door to the manor once the van disappeared around the corner and out of sight. She was met with the sight of Kol looking out the window with a sombre look on his face and shaking his head. "Problem, Kol?" She asked curiously, as she began to open the boxes.

"I was just thinking about Thierry before he was shackled down. He used to be such a good time. We were in the same class at school; such bittersweet memories." Kol commented like he was talking about a dead man, turning from the window. Caroline rolled her eyes, looked back at her work.

"They were mated, he didn't die." She pointed out.

"Same thing. The others just don't see it." He told her before walking out of the room and into the kitchen, not offering to help Caroline take her boxes upstairs. Caroline watched him go, let out a little chuckle and picked up the first box.

* * *

A half an hour or so later, Caroline was hanging up some of her dresses to air out the crinkles from transit when Kol wandered into the room. He had his hands in the pockets of his jeans and was standing watching her as she continued her work. Caroline acted like he wasn't even there for the first few seconds as she finished hanging up a sundress that she couldn't wear for another 8 months at least. After a few minutes terse silence, she finally spoke. "Can I help you, Kol?" She asked curiously, looking up and arching an eyebrow.

"I think Klaus might break up with me." He explained.

Caroline furrowed her brow and paused in her activities, going over what he'd said one more time in her head before putting a look of bewilderment on her face. "Should I be concerned that you and Klaus are engaging in an incestuous homosexual relationship?" She asked him curiously.

"What, no! Whilst he would be lucky to get a piece of me, Nik really isn't my type." Kol told her as he sat on the sofa bench that was pressed against the bed. Caroline would admit that she was relieved at his answer and let out a sigh, shaking her head as she picked up another dress and took a hanger off the rail to hang it. Kol continued to speak. "He's bossy and no fun, not since he became the Alpha anyway." He added with a shrug.

"So, if the pair of you isn't secretly in love, why is he breaking up with you?" She asked.

"I meant he might break up with me as a roommate." Kol told her like she should have known that the whole time, and she was ridiculously stupid for not knowing exactly what he was talking about the moment it came out of his mouth. Caroline just nodded to show she understood and continued with what she was doing, assuming that Kol would just continue to prattle on as he had the whole time she'd known him, even if nobody asked him to. "Usually when one of us gets a mate, they move out because unlike you and Klaus, the pair of them is all over each other and nobody wants to look at it, but Klaus is going to pull the Alpha card and send his own little brother packing." He shook his head in disapproval.

"Well, I'm sorry for your misfortunes but that's Klaus' business, not mine..." Caroline assured him as she broke down the now empty box that had held all her jeans and dresses. She knelt down next to another box and broke it open, revealing all her shirts perfectly folded and ready to go on the rail or in the drawers that she'd cleared in the wardrobe. "I've lived alone for the last year; it's not as bad as you might think. You might even enjoy it." She commented as she pulled out a stack of shirts and began to sort through them.

"It's not that, it's the fact that I'm being kicked out for some girl that Klaus barely knows and he hoped that he'd never meet. He was so adamant that he didn't want a mate, he really detested the idea of being bound to someone like that." Caroline paused in her movements when he spoke, staring at the shirt in her hands for a few seconds then back up at Kol. He shrugged and stood up, tucking his hands back into his pocket. Caroline could swear she saw the hint of a smirk on his lips as he began out the room, but couldn't be sure. "Oh well. Best go pack." He sighed and closed the door behind him, leaving a very pensive and increasingly angry Caroline in his wake.

* * *

Klaus returned home, having dropped Elijah back to Katherine as he had come along with him and Stefan to sort out the issues at hand. At his brother's invitation, he had gone in to say hello to his niece and nephew. Samuel had become fast friends with Caroline the day before, but he loved anyone who was friendly and he was already under the assumption that because his uncle and her were mated, that they were in love. They were synonyms to Samuel. Lily didn't even know the meaning of the word yet. He didn't stay long, anxious to be back with his mate.

Kol was not home when he arrived, probably having gone out for the evening. He could sense Caroline's presence as he opened the door and found her sitting in the living room watching TV with a blank expression. She was slumped in her seat, arm propped up on the sofa's arm to support her head and there was some folded up empty boxes leaning against the wall of the hallway which indicated that she was all unpacked. Klaus smirked and began into the room. "I see you're all settled in." He commented as a way of announcing himself, smiling as he spoke.

"I suppose so." She replied tersely. "Though I don't see why that makes you so happy." Her grumbling came a second later.

Klaus sat in the armchair next to the sofa as some trashy reality TV show he didn't recognise played on the flat screen, just going to commercial. He furrowed his brow at her words but she didn't look over to indicate her feelings, other than she didn't really want to look or engage with him. He could sense her anger bubbling at the surface but she was trying to ignore it herself. "It makes me happy because you're here with me." He commented. She scoffed. "Have I ever given you any indication that I wasn't made happy by your being here, love?"

She stood and began into the kitchen through the hallway, Klaus on her tail. Caroline pulled out a bottle of water from the fridge to uncap it and start to drink as he leaned on the island in the centre of the kitchen. She put the bottle on the table after taking a sip. "There was the time that you threatened me." Caroline reminded him.

"I said that because you wouldn't come with me, if anything that's evidence in my favour, love." He deadpanned, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes at her. Klaus knew now to push an angry woman who had access to a silver bullet gun too far or she might be tempted once more. Caroline glared at him and leaned with one hand on the island so they were opposite each other whereas Klaus leaned with both hands. "Ever since we met, I've wanted nothing more than you to be here."

"But you'd prefer it if you didn't have me here at all because you hoped that you would never meet me. You never wanted me part of your life and now you're stuck with me." Caroline snapped. Klaus froze, remembering those words. They were undeniably his and just from that, he knew that Kol had once again said something to get him in trouble. It was one of his favourite pastimes. He would make it seem like a slip of tongue, or just bad memory but it was contrived, to fuck with people's heads. Caroline was naïve to his games. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes for a one second, Klaus could sense her hurt. "I'm just an inconvenience to you." She concluded.

"Do you believe that?" He asked her softly, making his way around the island towards her. At first, she tried to move away but stopped herself, wrapping one arm around her torso to try and keep calm rather than seek his comfort.

"I don't know." Caroline muttered, looking away. "Look, I'm neurotic and I have a ton of complexes and screws loose. I wish that I wasn't like this, because it's incredibly unattractive and it pushes people away. Nobody has ever wanted me, not in a permanent way. I've always been second choice and second best to other kids, other girls, other people; I was never the one for anyone. Having someone just come into my life claiming to need me and want me for an entire lifetime seemed too good to be true. I know that some of it is down to this mate bond, but I don't know whether it's all because of that or something else…" She explained softly as Klaus got closer and closer to her, slowly moving to take her hand from the waist and use it to pull her close. She went with his movements, her body pliable.

"You should stop believing it, because it's not true." He told her.

"Did you not say those things? Did you not say that you never wanted a mate, to be shackled to someone in the way that you're now shackled to me?" She asked in a murmur, still looking down and sighing heavily as Klaus tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"I won't lie, I did say those things. But I said them because I didn't understand them." He commented softly. Caroline looked up with sad eyes and met his, the pull there once more. Klaus wondered whether that would ever wear off or whether there would be always be this supernatural pull to her whether he looked into her eyes. Klaus pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I don't understand them but I'm beginning to." He added gently against her forehead. Caroline sighed heavily once more and he pulled away to look down at her.

"Do you regret meeting me?" She asked him in a small voice.

"Not one bit." He promised her softly before lowering his lips to hers. She didn't resist him; she kissed back in a soft peck that wasn't too tame and chaste or too hot and passionate though there were hints of both ends of the spectrum there. She pulled back first, her hands somehow having made their way to his shoulders without him noticing. "Do you regret meeting me?" Klaus parroted back at her in curiosity, arching his brow.

"I'm going to plead the fifth on that one." She smirked.


	12. The Years Before

4 years ago...

Caroline looked up at the almost full moon from her bedroom window. Well, she said her bedroom; she shared it with three other girls. She had been there the longest so she got the bed next to the window. Two of the girls were in and out and one was new. The new girl was called Nicky and she was a raging bitch, for a fifteen year old. Demanding and abrasive, she was worse than Caroline in the not thinking before you speak department.

The blonde was sat up in bed trying to read her syllabus text with her glasses whilst the other girls got ready for bed. Now, one big difference between these three girls and Caroline was the fact that their parents' had beating hearts. Marie's parents were currently both in rehab after losing custody, Jennifer's mum was in prison for the third time and Nicky was an adoption kid. Her mother was a teen mother who came to visit every other weekend now she was married with two other kids. She was looking to get custody back seeing as nobody had fostered or adopted her.

Caroline tugged her shirt's collar as her skin began to warm though it wasn't that irritable. It was the middle of October but maybe the heating was up too high, she thought to herself. She took a note of some interesting metaphor and clicked her tongue as the girls continued to talk about some boy from the school they all went to. She rolled her eyes.

"What's with you, Forbes?" Nicky snapped.

Caroline looked up innocently from her book and raised an eyebrow at the girls who had stopped in their activities to stare at her. They were this unholy trinity of bitches, or maybe that's just how Caroline saw them. Her psychologist suspected that Caroline just saw everyone in a bad light due to her childhood trauma of losing her parents leading her to believe that only bad things would happen to her if she let herself trust someone. She never got the 'fairies are real and Peter Pan will come take me to Neverland' phase most kids got. "Nothing. Nothing whatsoever." She told the girls before going back to her book. "Just trying to do my work, that's what school is for, not for dating and sex purposes." She told them as an afterthought.

"You think you're better than me, don't you?" The girl snarled.

"Did I say that?" Caroline asked.

"I can read between the lines, you little orphan bitch." Nicky assured the blonde. She had dirty dishwater blonde hair that she had piled on top of her head. The other two were sat on their beds, trying to keep out of whatever storm was brewing between the two.

"That's funny. I didn't know you could read anything that wasn't on the packaging of your morning after pills." Caroline retorted before she could stop herself. She didn't know what was wrong with her tonight; she was rarely this bitchy to anyone. She kept her head down and got on with being second best. Her anger was getting the better of her, she guessed, she hated when someone called her an orphan like it was an insult. It was something she had no control over, and people used it against her. Her hand moved behind her to feel for her baby blanket, the soft material comforting her.

"You bitch!" Nicky snapped, stalking over to her bed. A moment later, the girl smirked and put her hands on her hips. "Well, at least boys want me. Nobody wants you, little orphan. How many have you ever been fostered and given back?"

"Watch it." Caroline's fist clenched around her blanket.

"It's probably because as soon as they realise what an anal-retentive freak you are, they send you right on back to where you came from." She continued as if Caroline hadn't spoken in the slightest. The other two girls shrunk into themselves, knowing that buttons were being pushed that would lead to something bad. "That's what all the boys at school say about you. That's what everyone says about you. Caroline the little orphan freak, who nobody will ever love."

Caroline's fist came out and slammed against Nicky's nose before she could stop herself. Jennifer and Marie screeched as Nicky staggered back, blood already visible. Jennifer screamed for the housemother to come quick as Caroline had gone crazy; Caroline stood up and grabbed her nearest and heaviest textbook to hold up. The rage was heavy in her heart now and before she could think, she whipped the book right across Nicky's face, that time she heard the crack of the bone breaking.

"Don't you ever speak to me again or I'll break every bone in your body!" She threatened in a shout, the anger the door opened and their housemother was coming into the room, instantly going a bleeding Nicky as she wailed like a baby.

Caroline dropped the book. Bang.

She slowly lowered herself onto the bed and tucked her knees to her chest, tears beginning to pour out of her eyes for a reason she couldn't pinpoint. Caroline wrapped her arms around her knees and continued to cry as the commotion continued around Nicky. She certainly wasn't crying because she regretted hitting Nicky, oh no that bitch could go to Hell. She felt like she was suffocating under a great weight, like she had lost someone or something dear to her and only just realised it.

She cast a look up at the near full moon through her teary vision, wondering if there was anyone looking at it like she was. Alone and confused.

* * *

"The house mother nearly called the police but when she saw I was cationic, she just moved me to another room and upped my psych sessions. They still didn't find anything to diagnose me with." Caroline explained as she sat with her feet in Klaus's lap. They had been sitting in his studio whilst he worked on some sketches for a while now and they had begun their twenty questions again. "It was the day before a full moon so looking back; it must have been the full moon screwing with my emotions that caused me to have a near psychotic breakdown." She commented lightly as she watched him sketch.

"That is common in teenage wolves, uncontrollable extreme emotions around the full moon. I can't tell you how many plates we've had to replace because Rebekah had a tantrum or times Kol was suspended from school for fighting. It's probably because they aren't getting their emotions out during the full moon so it boils over." He told her, looking up and tapping his pencil against the paper for a few seconds. "Though if you told my mother that story, she would have a different theory. She fancies herself an expert on werewolves, all these wonderful theories about what makes us tick, why we even exist, our purpose. She used to tell us the stories her mother told us about our history. It's both interesting and extremely depressing." Klaus added.

"What would her theory be?"

"That you were upset because of what was happening to me." Klaus explained. "My mother has a theory that the connection between mates is there from the beginning, meeting only cements it. She thinks that mates can feel extreme emotions even from a young age. So when something angering happened in my life, you would become angry and when something upsetting happened in your life, I would become upset and neither of us would have any idea why."

Caroline pondered the theory for a few seconds, flexing and pointing her feet to stretch them as she did. It felt weird to know that she was connected to this man now, let alone for years. She tried to recall instances where she'd written off extreme emotions as just tiredness, or stress, or many other reasons and a few dozen times jumped to her head. Then a question popped to her lips. "What was so angering for you that night then? Because it didn't really work out well for Nicky, if it's true." She asked.

"That was the night that my father died." He replied sombrely. She'd told him earlier that her attacking Nicky had been the day before the full moon in October of that year. He knew that date all too well. Caroline paused and sighed heavily, taking her feet back and tucking them under herself as Klaus set aside his sketchpad. "I remember feeling angry and upset and trying to suppress those emotions because my family was in such a state and I had a pack to see through the full moon. I certainly couldn't break a girl's nose to get my emotions out." He told her, looking over with a chuckle.

"I didn't break it, I shattered it." She smirked. Klaus laughed fully and took her hands to pull her over to his side of the sofa. "It was broken in two places and she needed to wear this bandage for months." Caroline added as she tucked herself into his side comfortably and he kissed the top of her head. She closed her eyes.

"That's my girl." He chuckled.

"Do you believe this theory then?" She asked him curiously, opening her eyes and looking up at him. Caroline sighed and straightened up so she was sat on her knees. His hand was woven into her hair from where he'd threaded his fingers into her curls during their brief embrace, massaging the roots of her blonde locks with his fingers and outlining her jaw with his thumb. She smiled and leaned into his touch, enjoying the way it made her feel settled.

"I don't know what I believe." He told her. "I prefer to focus on what I know."

"What do you know then?" Caroline inquired, arching an eyebrow. Klaus opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by his phone beeping on the end table. She rolled her eyes and fell back into a lying down position on the sofa as he got up to answer it. She had noticed in the last few days since she had moved in that the phone always seemed to ring at the most unfortunate times; in the middle of the night for instance, she had been woken by the ringing jolting her awake. Klaus had apologised and kissed her forehead but she hadn't been able to get back to sleep after that. So in conclusion, she hated that fucking phone. "I know that you need to throw that thing out of the window." She grumbled.

Klaus chuckled and checked the text he'd just received. "And I know that the pack is meeting tonight to finally put a stop to all these rumours about a new alpha female." He commented, putting the phone aside. Caroline groaned and hid her face in her hands. The more she thought about it, the more terrified she was to meet the pack. Caroline learned that there were 35 werewolves. 11 of who were underage like Samuel and Lily but still counted in the pack's total. It was one of the biggest packs in the states, according to Klaus. Most of them lived in the town, but a few lived in a small settlement of cabins in the woods. These were mostly the wolves that had joined Klaus' pack from the broken shards of others' packs.

Her mate smirked and walked over, sitting beside her and removing her hands from her face. "So, if there are already 35 werewolves in your pack, I'm number 36?" Caroline asked curiously.

"Well, you technically won't be part of the pack until the mating process is complete but yes, you'll be the 36th werewolf in the pack." Klaus commented as he pushed her hair from her face and cupped her jaw, rubbing his thumb into her cheekbones in circles to keep her calm. He could sense her anxiety and wanted to do something to calm her down. She hummed happily and lay back once more, closing her eyes.

"That's still a lot of werewolves." Caroline muttered, looking down to avoid Klaus' eyes like he couldn't tell she was worried about meeting the pack. She furrowed her brow and looked up at Klaus. "When is the mating process complete?" She asked him curiously.

"Well, you have to meet the pack and they have to show their loyalty to you as the new alpha female. Not 34 of them, of course. The children and the teenagers are exempt until their first full moon, but then they have to show their loyalty to their pack's alpha male and female or become an omega themselves." He explained, leaning forward to kiss her forehead gently. "Best wrap up warm, the temperature in the woods during the night at this time of year is below freezing." Klaus commented, patting her thigh reassuringly.

"What happens if one of them objects or doesn't like me? Will I not be part of the pack?" She asked quietly. That was her main issue with meeting the pack. The fear of rejection was crippling to Caroline, that's half of what had driven her to stay away from pack and general social life. If you didn't put yourself out there, people couldn't knock you down any further than you could. Now she was being expected to win over 35 werewolves and help lead them, when she knew barely anything about the werewolf species or the pack she was now in charge of. It was all too much sometimes.

"Then you have to show them that you're the boss around here now and you don't care what they think of you because it doesn't make the smallest bit of difference to you." Klaus assured her, kissing her forehead gently before pulling her up to her feet. "And if they persist, then we give them the option to submit or leave the pack and become an omega wolf. Most of the pack has family, friends, their whole life is with this pack. It would take a lot of dislike and discontentment with you to walk away from that, love." He assured her.

Caroline sighed. "Shall we get going then?" She asked, to which Klaus smiled and nodded. _._


	13. The Chess Game

**So at last count, this story had hit 270 reviews, which is madness for a 13 chapter story! Thank you guys for being so amazing and enjoying the story so much that you want to tell me! Never hesitate to tell what you think, good, bad, ugly. Questions, comments, queries, hell I'll even take plot bunnies or where you think this story should go! I don't bite, I'm not Klaus ;) **

**I'm posting today because I'm going to be busy over the weekend so enjoy, the next chapter may not be till Tuesday-ish but it'll hopefully be worth the wait! Onwards!**

* * *

Caroline shuddered as the cold air froze her breath into a cloud during her exhales and the frozen ground crunched underneath her feet. She was a werewolf so yes, she didn't feel the cold like humans did but it was the middle of November and the temperatures were cold enough to give a werewolf enough pause to put on a jacket. "Do you really have to hold these pack meetings in the middle of a forest in winter?" She asked grumpily as Klaus wrapped an arm around her shoulders to keep her warm and the pair continued to travel further into the trees. The campsite was buried deep within the woods, so they wouldn't be disturbed, he explained.

"I don't think the local church would let us use their rec room." He commented with a chuckle.

"So, Alcoholics Anonymous is okay, but a pack of werewolves is too much, right, noted." She replied softly with a smirk as she tucked some hair behind her ear, adjusting her fingerless gloves on her hands and the scarf she'd wrapped around her neck before leaving. They continued for a while in silence, the cold ground was slippery because of a recent rain causing Caroline to slip on a particularly muddy log that she attempted to use as leverage to climb up an incline. She let out a little squeak but Klaus caught her just in time to stop her face colliding with the forest floor. He hauled her back to her feet and readjusted her coat where it had fallen awry in the fall.

"You okay?" He asked, she nodded to reassure him that she was unhurt even though her ankle throbbed angrily in pain. She smiled as he spoke once more to throw him off the trail, hoping that he wasn't that attuned to her emotion to know she was in pain. It would feel better in a few moments, she assured herself. "You may be the clumsiest werewolf I've ever met."

"I may be." Caroline told him with a smile, blushing deep tomato red as he pointed out one of her biggest flaws besides her neurotic personality: her clumsiness. Most werewolves were graceful and agile, especially in forest environments. It was their natural habitat from back when the werewolf packs didn't mix with human society and lived in the woods. But a city girl born and bred in the foster system and oblivious to her heritage wasn't going to become a world class werewolf in a year, especially with no guidance.

That thought made Caroline groan and put her forehead on Klaus' chest to hide her embarrassment and frustration. "Rebekah's right, your mother is right, you should have a half decent wolf as your mate." She grumbled, though it was slightly muffled by Klaus' shirt. "Alpha females are supposed to be people who actually know what being a werewolf means, and know all the basic things about them. I don't know any of that! I barely even know the mating ritual and process that I'm going through right now! You've been lumbered with an incompetent excuse for a werewolf!" She sighed heavily as she pulled back, looking him in the eye.

Klaus felt a pang in his chest when he saw the tears welling up in her eyes as she spoke all this derogatory remarks about herself and shushed her softly, kissing her forehead and rubbing her upper arms in an attempt to calm her down. A tear escaped from one eye and Caroline tried to duck her head to hide her tears. Klaus caught it with his thumb and wiped it away, using his hand to pull her chin back up, kissing her nose softly. "I haven't been lumbered with anyone. And you'll get better at it, you've done pretty well considering that you've only been turning for a year and a half plus you've been completely alone for that time."

Caroline looked unconvinced so he continued. "My family and my pack are trained since birth to prepare for their lives as a werewolf after their eighteenth birthday so they don't hurt anyone. It's a miracle that you haven't killed or hurt anyone before as an omega wolf. You're ten times a better wolf than them for that, Caroline." He told her softly. Caroline smiled and put her forehead on his chest once more, a couple more tears escaping. He sighed and wrapped his arms around her to keep her warm and comfort her.

A few minutes later, Caroline pulled away and wiped her eyes, smudging her mascara. "Okay, I'm alright now. Let's go." She smiled, before beginning to walk away. Caroline attempted to disguise her limp from her twisted ankle but she soon found herself being pulled in the direction that they came, back down the incline onto steady and flat land. Her ankle did feel better, but it still twinged with pain every time she took a step.

"If you think I'm letting you trek another half a mile on a twisted ankle that you've been hiding from me for the last five minutes, then you are obviously insane and you need to get some bed rest." He explained as he hooked his arms under her shoulders and knees and scooped her up. Caroline shrieked as the ground disappeared from underneath her and she found herself wrapping her arms around his neck to secure herself before she slipped out of his arms. She wasn't as light as he made out she was, she knew that.

"I can walk just fine to the meeting. Come on, they'll be disappointed and angry that we dragged them out there for nothing just to not show up." She assured him, trying to convince him to turn around as they began to walk back to Klaus' house. Well Klaus and Caroline's. "I'll make you a deal: You can carry me to the meeting, and then put me down before anyone sees you carrying me because that's not really how I want the pack's first impression of me to go and I'll sit right down and rest my ankle." She bargained.

Klaus debated in his head for a few seconds. Caroline arched her eyebrows and gave him a 'do what I say or there will be trouble' face, hoping it would work. It did, Klaus turned and began back the way they had been going in the first place. "Fine." He grumbled.

"Besides my ankle isn't even that bad. You're just deluding yourself into thinking I'm hurt so you can play the hero." Caroline commented and experimentally flexed her ankle to prove that she wasn't as injured as Klaus believed. She hissed angrily at the stab of pain that began to radiate through her muscles and bones as she did. Klaus chuckled but didn't instantly turn around like she expected him to.

"Yes, I'm so deluded." Klaus smirked.

* * *

Klaus and Caroline made their way to the abandoned campsite near the cabins where the wolves came to meet, discuss issues with the pack and generally bond as a pack. The cabins were lived in by groups of single wolves or ex-omegas that weren't as comfortable with living in the town as the Mikaelsons and a lot of the rest of the pack were. It was a little village within a town, as Henrik as described it the other day. It was the first place to go if you wanted to find the pack, but most nights there was no formal meeting like tonight so obviously the wolves must have been curious as to what was going on.

Only the Mikaelsons had known what was going on in full, Thierry and Katy knew a little and Klaus had told them to keep it to themselves when asked. At first, Caroline had wondered whether Klaus was hiding her from his pack, but realised quickly that he wanted to give her some time to adjust to the house and the town before he let 30 odd werewolves descend on her with questions and opinions about her new position within their pack.

The fact that they had no idea who she was became evident from the confused looks on everyone's face when Caroline approached the fireplace after Klaus set her down in the trees a little ways off to let her walk into the campsite. They could smell her omega wolf scent and knew that she wasn't one of them. She was an outsider. But not for long.

Kol was sat on a wood log with Katherine beside him, he cheered upon Klaus and Caroline's arrival and called them over. Caroline rolled her eyes and began over, as it was the only seat left and she had promised to sit down. "I've saved a seat for our guest of honour, the reason I'm sleeping on my sister's couch right now." Kol told her with slurred words, handing a beer from a cooler beside them to Caroline. She opened it and took a sip. "My new sister wolf." He wrapped an arm around Caroline and squeezed her tight, nearly causing her to spill her drink.

"He's drunk, ignore him." Katherine warned her.

"I do that when he's sober." Caroline quipped as the rest of the pack went quiet; Klaus was standing behind her with his own beer. Kol comically put his finger to his lips and shushed loudly. Katherine rolled her eyes and checked that Kol's antics wasn't waking her one year old. Lily was asleep against her mother's shoulder, wrapped up in what seemed like three hundred layers to keep her warm, one thumb in her mouth. She explained that she had left Samuel at home with Henrik, but didn't feel confident with leaving Lily with him yet.

"Okay, we're all cold, so we should start before someone dies of hypothermia." There were titters all around and Caroline looked up, scowling at Klaus. She remembered that she had thought he was going to get hypothermia the day after they met, was he making an inside joke? Did wolves not get hypothermia? She thought to herself as the pack quietened down. Klaus kept his address simple, he told her who she was, what she was to him and a brief explanation of how they had met. Not surprisingly, he left out the part with the silver bullet gun. Caroline just watched as he explained the situation to his pack. He was charming, smooth and direct, like a politician. A great leader, she thought to herself as he spoke and she tried to stop herself from staring at her feet to avoid the pack's looks.

When Klaus was done with his speech, the pack seemed kind of awed by the sight of the blonde who had been destined to be their alpha female now. She couldn't help but notice that of the overage wolves amongst them, she was one of the youngest. Five years younger than her mate, Caroline was eight months away from turning 20. There was one girl, about Caroline's age, staring at her from across the fire and it was similar to the look Rebekah had given Caroline the day they had met. Like the flesh could melt off her face from anger. "Now. Unless anyone has anything to say, that'll be all for tonight, I imagine that everyone wants to get inside and-"

Klaus was cut off by a frustrated noise as the female with brunette hair rose from her seat and stormed off towards the group of cabins. There were about five or six of them, huddled together and all aglow. She opened the door to one and slammed it audibly behind her. The whole pack was silent. "Well, that was rude." Kol commented not so quietly, his words fuzzy in his mouth.

There were a few murmurs among the pack as Caroline watched after the girl and knew one thing: That was what discontentment and dislike looked like.

* * *

"They don't like me." Caroline decided as they walked back, her ankle no longer that much of a pain, she stared at the ground and focused on where she was putting her feet. Klaus furrowed his brow beside her and pulled her wrist to stop her moving. She was tugged to a halt and back till she was nearly against his chest. She put a hand against his chest where his heart lay to steady herself, lest she trip again. He was looking into her eyes intently. "You saw that girl. Everyone saw that girl." She told him, giving him a look.

"And she speaks for the whole pack?" He asked her curiously. "The majority of them were accepting, you're focusing on the negative minority. They loved you." Klaus told her.

"They tolerated me. They know I'm going to cause problems." She retorted.

"Then cause them, this pack could use something to keep them entertained lately. You can play any game with that girl you want, and you will win because you are the alpha female. If this were a chess game, you'd be the Queen. And the queen is the most powerful piece on the board." He chuckled before placing his lips against hers in a brief kiss. She smirked against his lips at the analogy, but she didn't feel like a Queen just yet. "Give it time, love. You'll see." He promised her gently.

* * *

The next morning, Caroline decided she needed to go for a run to clear her head. She hadn't slept well that night and she needed some time to think. She kissed Klaus goodbye and dug out her running stuff from the drawers so she could go running about the town, perhaps into the woods. She blasted her music as loud as she could without bursting her ear drums and just went whatever way she felt like it to burn the frustration and the anger from last night off.

Caroline ran and ran through the town, trying to become accustom to its layout then through the forest; she followed the river up to the falls and back again, pausing only for a few sips of water from her bottle and to fiddle with her iPod. She ran until her chest was tight and she was tearing up. That was usually her body's way of telling her to stop and take a rest. After an hour of running, she decided to stop and grab a bite to eat at a local bakery. Caroline untied the thin jogging sweatshirt from around her waist and pulled it over her head as she began into the main square of the town.

When her head emerged from the sweater, the brunette girl was standing in front of her. She was wearing a brown leather jacket and her arms were crossed across her chest. Caroline stopped abruptly and furrowed her brow, plucking her headphones out of her ears which cut off the song that she had been listening to. "Can I help you?" She asked curiously.

"Not really, unless you want to go away and leave my pack alone." The girl replied with a sneer and a shrug.

"I think you mean our pack." Caroline retorted, crossing her arms across her chest and cocking both her eyebrows.

"It's not your pack until everyone in the pack accepts you and I don't. I don't care what little scam you're trying to pull with Klaus trying to come in here and become alpha female when you've obviously never been around a pack before in your life, but it's not going to work." The girl told her firmly. "My pack deserves better than some clueless omega and so does Klaus. He deserves a mate that actually knows what she's doing."

Caroline scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Like you?"

"Well, certainly not you." The brunette snorted. Suddenly Caroline felt like she was back in high school again. She had hated going to school, especially high school. Caroline hated the fake clique nonsense that she had to deal with over prom queen and home coming queen. Caroline had always been better off by herself because other girls her age brought out the worst of her neurotic and potentially bitchy personality. Like Nicky. Now between this girl and Rebekah, she felt like she was back in the 11th grade. And that was bad enough the first time around; she had no desire to relive it.

"Look…"

"Hayley."

"Hayley." Caroline spoke the name bitterly and pursed her lips as she quickly formulated her comeback in her mind, reminding herself that you shouldn't break people's noses as a coping technique. "I may be an inexperienced werewolf, but that is because I only found out a year ago that I was a werewolf, I wasn't prepared to start turning into a fucking wolf one full moon. And just so we're clear, I'm not pulling any scam. I don't care about being alpha female. I just care about being close to my mate and doing what's right for the both of us and _our_ pack. And if that means having to kick you tail first out, then so be it." She said before beginning past the girl.

Hayley made an annoyed noise and yelled after her. "This isn't over." The brunette snarled.

"Looks pretty over to me." Caroline called back over her shoulder as she popped her ear buds back in and began her music once more.


	14. The First Time

**And like that, we hit 300 reviews! A little bit of blackmail to push the last three but that still counts!**

**Before we get onto the chapter, I wanna just address something that bugged me. In a few of the reviews, people were referring to Hayley as a slut or wereslut or slut shaming in general. This not only bothers me, it worries me. I'm assuming that most of my readership are female, and probably young females (sorry to all your OAP males out there, holla at a playa though) and saying such things about a female character who hasn't done anything of a sexual nature in the canon of my story, and only once in the canon of the TVD/TO universe is wrong. Extremely so. Tumblr is a known platform for preaching female rights and pointing out how men treat us and slut shame us, yet we find it okay to slut shame female characters ourselves? That isn't going to help anyone, especially when I believe these comments against Hayley aren't warranted. A woman, fictional or non fictional, can do what she likes with her body. As long as it's consensual, people should be able to so whatever they want in the bedroom and not be judged. Not Elena, or Caroline, or Katherine, or Bonnie, or Qetsiyah whatsherface, or anyone should be judged. **

**You may not like Hayley in the story or in the universe itself. I do, but that's my choice. It doesn't affect my shipping of Klaroline, but I can't stand beside and watch as these sort of dangerous and hurtful comments are posted in my reviews. Put yourself in the shoes of Hayley and then think whether being called a slut is justified. Is it? Answer: NO, it is never justified to call someone a slut. Don't do it, kids. **

**I assume most of you read the name Hayley and skipped ahead but I needed to get that off my chest, so I'm going to let you enjoy the chapter now. I think you'll all enjoy it very much. As much as I enjoyed writing it ;)**

**Oh, also shoutout to my girl, Nicole for making her beautiful cover for the story! You're a star, girlfriend! **

**Oh and anyone who thinks this is the dreaded Chapter 14 I've been talking about, this is actually Chapter 13, because the prologue doesn't count as a chapter for me. Muhahahahahah. **

**Thank you for the 300 reviews! Here's the next hundred! Onwards! :D**

* * *

A little later on, Caroline was lying on the couch and staring out the ceiling aimlessly as Klaus milled about the house doing odd jobs. She couldn't really care enough to ask what he was doing, she couldn't think about anything else other than Hayley. Caroline had never been a possessive person, she'd rarely had possessions to be controlling over. She shared everything with the kids in the foster systems with her, and by the time she could buy her own stuff, she didn't care anymore. But the way she felt now was so powerful and overwhelming. This was her pack, she was the alpha female and nobody was going to take it from her.

"You're getting that crinkle between your eyebrows again. Working on a cure for cancer over there?" Klaus asked curiously, as he watched his mate scowl at the ceiling. She looked at him and propped herself up on her elbows, still scowling.

"I met the pack, so what's the next step of the process?" She asked curiously, tilting her head and smoothing out her expression to a soft, inquiring smile. Klaus sat in the armchair, just watching her with a quizzical look on his face. When he didn't respond after a few seconds later, the scowl returned to her face. "What is it? I can handle it. Unless I have to sacrifice a goat or something." She assured him, standing up and running her fingers through her hair as she approached him. Klaus chuckled at her goat comment, following her with his eyes.

"I'm more than sure that you can handle it, love, but the final step is rather important and you have to be ready for it. You have to be completely certain that you'll never want another man in your lifetime because after this, you and I will be completely one another's and that'll lead to uncontrollable possessiveness if you even look at another man in a way that I don't like." Klaus explained as he stood up and took both her hands, pulling her closer to him till their chests were pressed together. Caroline looked up at him. "I'm very serious, it's all consuming. If you were to sleep with another man after the final step is taken, I would most likely kill him. Which is why you have to be absolutely certain that you're ready for it."

"Why am I the one who's cheating?" Caroline asked, furrowing her brow. "I don't cheat."

"I was using it as an example. I'm sure that you would rip apart any woman that I tried to sleep with or came onto me. Not that you ever have to worry about that." He commented. Caroline couldn't help but envision Hayley when he spoke, and growled lowly in her throat. Klaus looked at her curiously. "You okay there, love?" Klaus chuckled softly, tucking her hair behind her ear as he put his hand on her lower back to keep her close.

"I'm fine. I just want to know what I have to do."

"It's not something you have to do; it's something we have to do." Klaus assured her with a smirk, playing with the ends of her hair. "The final part of the mating process is sexual intercourse as the ultimate objective of being mates to reproduce and continue the line. That's why we feel such a draw to each other." He explained slowly. Caroline nodded slowly. She knew now why Klaus hadn't approached her about completing the mating process yet. She had made it one of the conditions of coming with him to Virginia that she would initiate any sexual relationship. Her mouth made a little 'oh' of realisation and she looked away, blushing red.

"So I'm the one that stopping everything?" She connected the dots. "Isn't that annoying? I bet if it were any other werewolf, she'd already be pregnant. You would have sorted this all out within a few hours of meeting her." She grumbled lowly, furrowing her brow deeply.

"I only care about your own happiness, forcing you into something you didn't want to do would just lead to you being unhappy and that would ultimately affect our pack and myself." He explained softly. Caroline had barely known Klaus a week but she knew that he seemed to care about his pack's collective welfare just as much as his family and his mate's. He was a good leader. Caroline sighed heavily then looked up at him.

"I want to be your mate, in every way. That's what will make me happy." She spoke softly, cupping his jawline with her hands and kissing him deeply. He was so tall that she had to go up on her tiptoes to reach his lips. The moment their lips touched, it was an explosion of want and passion that Caroline didn't know she was capable of, she hadn't kissed Klaus like this since the night in her apartment, it had been all chaste kisses on the cheek, forehead and on occasion the lips but right now, even this kiss wasn't enough, she wanted more. It was like a switch had been flipped in her mind.

Klaus obviously felt the same as he pulled her close by the hips, a groan escaping from his throat as their kiss continued. He held her impossibly close to his lean body and she could feel every part of him against her smaller, slender but just as durable and strong body. She moaned against his lips and ran her fingers into his hair, clutching at his curls to keep her close to him. If she caused him any discomfort, he didn't show as they continued to kiss in the middle of their shared lounge. He swore lightly against her lips, which made her giggle.

"So do I get a bed or are we going with the couch?" She murmured against his lips between kisses before dipping her tongue between his lips, cutting off any reply he may have had for her. Their tongues duelled for a few seconds, prompting another moan from the pair of them before Klaus moved his hands down to the backs of her toned thighs. He scooped her up like she was light as a feather, wrapping her long legs around his waist as he began towards the stairs. "The bed, it is then." She chuckled against his lips.

A few moments later, Klaus was lying her on the bed like she were made of glass, not exactly what she had been expecting from an alpha male mating with his alpha female for the first time. Her hands went to the hem of his shirt and she yanked it off, throwing it aside as her insides felt like they were turning to paraffin and Klaus' touch was a lit match. Her fingers danced across his abs as she admired his form but Klaus didn't give her much time to enjoy the view.

She cupped his cheek as he swooped in to kiss her once more, holding her waist as he brought their hips close, locking them together as they fit perfectly. Caroline groaned loudly at the friction created by his movements and her nails raked across the skin at the edge of his jaw line, her other hand cupping his bicep. She was completely breathless, like she was running on fumes alone and the lust pumping through her veins, not air; no matter what anyone said, that couldn't be healthy but it still felt so good. "Klaus…" She breathed. "I need you." Caroline knew that those words exactly would stir something primal in her mate and he couldn't do anything to refuse her what she needed, what they both wanted.

It worked. Klaus groaned lowly in his throat and his hands went to hem of her vest she'd thrown on after showering from running and practically tore it off her body in an effort to undress her as quickly as he could. She unbuttoned her own jeans and lifted her hips so Klaus could pull them off her slowly, discarding them and kissing up her legs as he returned back to her lips. Their lips were connected at all times unless it was impractical or impossible to perform a task. Caroline's hands craned behind her back to unhook her bra strap and pull it off her body.

Klaus didn't even need prompting as his hands trailed to cup her breasts and Caroline gasped against his lips. It was like every inch of her skin was more sensitive for his touch and his touch only. She knew what he meant by the fact that she couldn't even attempt to have sex with another man after this, not only because of Klaus' jealously but because no man could do what Klaus was doing to her, so there would be little point to straying. She moaned as his hands and fingers worked their magic on her breasts, their lips still locked together.

Caroline imagined that he would spend all day making her moan but she was not a patient woman right now as her hands snapped to his belt and unbuckled it. She tossed the accessory aside and began to relieve him of his jeans, leaving him in his boxers and her in her cotton briefs. It wasn't exactly like she planned to have sex tonight, and they were comfortable, she thought to herself absentmindedly as Klaus reached into the bedside cabinet and pulled out that familiar foil packet.

"I thought the point of mating was reproduction." She teased lightly, though there was a genuine question hidden in there.

"We've plenty of time for that later." He assured her with a kiss to the lips; Caroline chuckled and brought him close by wrapping her arms around his neck. Their kiss lasted a few seconds before he pulled back and kissed her nose. "I need my field of vision for this bit." He chuckled darkly.

It only took a few more seconds, even though to Caroline they seemed to drag on forever as she burned up. She felt Klaus' fingers hooking into her underwear and pulling them down her long, shapely legs and off. They didn't have the time to contemplate and explore each other's bodies, this time it was all about heat and sex and passion. They could have soft and sweet later, Caroline told herself as Klaus claimed her lips the same moment that he claimed her.

She felt so full and she couldn't control the gasp that escaped from her lips at the way that she was suddenly, completely full. Caroline swore like Klaus had earlier, and he chuckled, holding her and himself still as they both adjusted to the feeling of being together at last. Caroline struggled to catch her breath and Klaus kissed her nose softly, a moment of tenderness to kick off the passionate, rough and unforgiving feel of his thrusts in and out of her that came next.

Caroline grabbed at his biceps, his curls, the sheets beneath her, his neck, just something to hold onto lest she feel like she was about to disappear into the oblivion of this blinding pleasure. She swore more times than she had in her life before, cuss words and moans and her pleading Klaus' name punctuating each thrust and her hips rolled back against his to keep them together. She didn't know how long they were like that, but when her release hit her like a brick wall, she knew it was too long and too short a time at the same time. Caroline knew she wanted more already as she whispered her mate's name. He followed her but Caroline barely noticed as she rode out her orgasm.

She practically melted into the mattress as she came down, Klaus pulling out of her slowly and lying beside her. He pulled her against his chest and lay a kiss at the Caroline closed her eyes for a few seconds, or what seemed like but when she opened them again, Klaus was gone from beside her.

Caroline sat up in bed; the sheets now pulled over her and squinted at the sunlight she hadn't expected to be there. She was alone. And it was daytime. Had she really fallen asleep straight after her orgasm like an idiot? She fell back and groaned loudly.

"Reliving last night already?" Klaus smirked as he entered the room from the bathroom, wearing just his sweats as per his usual morning routine. Caroline looked up and rolled her eyes, falling back on the bed once more as he dried over his hair with a towel before throwing it aside and getting into bed next to her. She automatically curled up beside him and placed a kiss against his tattooed chest with a sigh. "I didn't want to wake you, I turned over and you were completely out of it. It was rather adorable that I wore you out so quickly."

"Don't flatter yourself." Caroline commented wryly, poking him in the chest playfully. She rest her head over his heart and closed her eyes for a few seconds, willing herself not to fall back to sleep by focusing on her breathing and the beating of her mate's heart. Klaus wrapped around her waist and his fingers began to draw absentminded patterns on the skin of her hip. "I've been thinking about something."

"And what's that, love?" He inquired, admiring his mate as she curled up against him.

"You know packs in Kentucky, so maybe your father knew my parents' pack." She told him what she'd been theorising the last few days.

Klaus seemed to ponder this notion for a few seconds before offering his own thoughts. "It's entirely possible. Most of the alphas know each other within a three to four state distances. There are far less of us then there once was. So, I guess, that in theory you're right."

"Would your mother know?"

"My mother had six children to deal with. She focused more on internal problems with the pack than with other packs." He explained, Caroline's heart sinking as he spoke. She sunk into his side. So much for that plan, she thought. Maybe Esther could have told her a little about what would have her pack had she grown up with her parents. It was just wishful thinking really. "Though my father kept pretty extensive journals, they're all upstairs in the old master bedroom. My mother refuses to even look at them, so we haven't moved them." He told her as an afterthought.

Caroline perked up, sitting up on his chest so she was facing him. "Would it be an invasion of your deceased father's privacy if I had a look?" She asked curiously.

"Probably, but there's not much he can do about it now." Klaus told her softly, running his fingers through her hair and pulling her close for a kiss on the lips. She smiled against his lips and cupped his jaw. "You can have a look today; Elijah wants to borrow me to look over some details for the gallery. Which means, we will eventually have to get out of bed and put clothes on, but not just yet." He explained to her with a shake of her head. Caroline pouted comically before giggling and kissing him once more.


	15. The Skeletons in the Closet

**Woah, that was an influx of reviews! The last chapter was the most reviewed, and that probably has something to do with the bedroom hymns Klaus and Caroline will singing in the last chapter! Also, thank you to all those people who were supporting my mini rant about Hayley, you're all amazingly awesome. So, keep the reviews coming! I love you all!**

* * *

Mikael had been stupidly tidy and organised with his journals; Caroline noted when she found them in perfect chronological order. They were leather bound with the months and years they were in use inscribed on labels on the spines. She started with some of the older journals from when Mikael was new to being the alpha, having taken over when his father died unexpectedly. They were mostly the thoughts of young man who was new to power, no mentions of other packs. Caroline read a few entries from each journal, tracking through the years before she reached an interesting passage.

_I met her today, my mate, after all these years of waiting. Everyone who has ever spoken about the bond was right, it is a powerful thing. Her name is Esther and she is by far the most beautiful woman I've ever laid my eyes on. She comes from a neighbouring pack in North Carolina that was visiting, but she will be transferring to the house tomorrow morning. We had a long walk in the woods after we first laid eyes on each other, I wanted nothing more than to be around her and spend time with her, listen to her voice as she spoke._

_She was extremely well spoken and brazen with her opinions, she has all these ideas about how a werewolf pack should be run that her father refuses to put forward because she is just the daughter of a beta. She has beautiful eyes and an enchanting smile. I think we will be happy together. _

Caroline smiled as she read the words, the first indication she'd ever had about what Klaus' parents had been like as a couple. To the family, it was like their relationship had never existed, probably to reduce the pain that weighed on the living half of the pair. She was too scared to ask Klaus about how his parents had been as a couple; not wanting to broach what was obviously a tricky subject for him. The words of adoration gave her a little hope that Klaus had in fact been raised in a relatively stable relationship. She wondered whether Klaus had thought the same things about her when they first met. Caroline sighed and closed the journal, replacing it in the right place and pulling out one from a year later.

Sitting cross legged and leaning against the wall of the old master bedroom, Caroline read through Mikael's moaning about Esther when she was pregnant with Finn, his first thoughts on parenthood and how Finn cried through the night like a siren. That made her chuckle. With his life and journal so orientated around family, he barely made any notes about his pack and when he did, he reported only good things about his pack's growing size. It was nowhere near as big as it was now, about 18 from what Klaus had told her, but still relatively big for a gathering of wolves.

In the journals around the time of Elijah's birth, Mikael did mention that the Salvatore's pack, the nearest pack to theirs, had recently grown in size and the alpha had found his mate. Mikael's comments about the pair possibly having children soon sounded a bit bitter to Caroline, but he wasn't worried as he had two healthy sons, an alpha and a beta to follow him. He spoke of his two sons, particularly Finn, with some much adoration that she glanced at the journals from the year of Finn's death and her heart clenched, reminding herself not to go there.

Caroline couldn't resist the temptation and found the journal from the year of Klaus' birth, flicking through to the month he was born. The first entry was once again Mikael making almost scientific sounding observations about how little Esther slept during the nights with the baby kicking and how Elijah liked to read to her bump whilst Finn wanted nothing to do with his mother's growing belly, more interested in school than having yet another sibling. Oh, if only he knew what lay ahead with Rebekah, Kol and Henrik, Caroline thought to herself as she smiled at the visual of Elijah reading Green Eggs and Ham to a stomach.

Eventually she found the entry from the day Klaus was born.

_Esther named the third son Niklaus after her father; she said that she had wanted to honour him with a namesake for a long time. Elijah already has troubles pronouncing his little brother's name whereas Finn has no problems; I believe it'll be very quickly shortened down to something more modern and easier on Elijah to say. He was born during the witching hour of the full moon so I was unable to be there for the second time, but he was sleeping when I reached Esther. _

_When he woke up, I thought he might scream the hospital down, he was so loud. He is worse than Finn was. It doesn't take much to get him screaming again, he already has quite the temper. When I held him for the first time, he was still for a moment then began to cry again, Esther insisted it was because I wasn't gentle enough with him and took him straight back, he was quiet once more. Nothing calms him down like his mother does. _

_She coddles him so already, always cuddling and telling him how gorgeous he is despite the fact his face is permanently red from screaming and his face is always crinkled. I think it's because she knows that he will grow up in the shadow of his brothers, but that is the burden of the third born son. He will never know the weight of the duty of being an alpha or a beta like Finn and Elijah will. Esther thinks this is something to pity him for, I think it is something to be jealous of. He will grow up, find his mate and live a quiet life with her. He will be loyal to his brothers and uphold this family's traditions. _

Caroline smiled when she thought about the shock Mikael must have gotten when he realised that Klaus' destiny was not to be quiet and loyal, but to be the alpha of the very pack he was never supposed to command according to his father. Quite the plot twist, she thought to herself as she plucked a Polaroid that was pressed between the pages. There were quite a few that were in the journal, all taken by Esther according to the writing on the back. It was an old and faded picture of Klaus sleeping in an old looking crib in the middle of the day, wrapped in a blue blanket. Elijah was leaning over the edge of the crib to peer inside, fascinated with his baby brother

She placed the picture back into the pages of the journal and then turned the page, skim reading over the next couple of months. Klaus liked to scream down the house as that was Mikael's main compliant. His father noted that his third born was especially awful the night before full moon, but Elijah was clingy during the days of the full moon as he knew that his parents would be going and leaving him in the care of one of the teenage wolves for the night. Finn just calmly got on with it, he even helped Esther with looking after Elijah and soothing Klaus, though his brothers called him Nik for short. Mikael hated that.

A few journals and little information about other packs later, Kol came along and changed the ball game once more. Klaus was 3 at the time, and less gracious about having a baby brother than Elijah had been. By this time, the three sons were 9, 6 and 3 respectively. Finn was pretty familiar with the whole new sibling situation by now, Elijah was a little more understanding and Niklaus hated it. The blonde reading the journals nearly died laughing when Mikael recounted a story of Klaus asking when they were going to take Kol back to where he came from. It was nice to see that very little had changed between the brothers.

The next few years were uneventful in regards to pack's activity, a few wolves joined, another few left, they met a hunter who meant them no harm and offered them a favour in exchange for his life when Mikael nearly had him killed. The alpha wolf accepted the offer, enjoying the feel of having a hunter in his debt, the power it brought his pack. All four of his sons grew up fighting and being typical boys, they picked on Kol because he was youngest, Klaus because he had an easy temper, Elijah because he tried to stop them being bullies to each other and Finn because he was boring. Esther spoke a dozen times about wishing she had a girl one day.

Caroline began to wonder whether she would ever find anything about her old pack as she closed one diary and found another. This one from the year she was born. In the spring months of the year, Esther found out she was pregnant again, which had mixed reactions from the boys.

_Kol was less temperate about getting a baby brother or sister than Klaus was, who on the other hand, is now bored by the prospects of any more brothers. He is rather intelligent and mature in thinking for a five year old, but less so than Elijah was at that age. Kol does not understand why there is a baby growing inside his mother, but his brothers refuse to explain it to him. Elijah simply told him it was magic. Finn has a bet that it'll be a girl with Klaus, though I have no idea what they bet with, being only children. Esther hopes that it'll be a girl. _

The months went by, and a passage caught her eye.

_A pack in Kentucky is growing rapidly, one of our cubs defected to them a few days ago. I went with her parents to try and convince her to return and found the pack living in and around the city. The alpha has a mate and is only slightly younger than Esther and myself. He understood Alana and Joseph's stance, not wanting to lose their daughter from our pack but he insisted that it was her decision with whom she put her loyalties with. She is young and new to transforming each full moon and that can cause confusion sometimes, emotions are tricky to deal with at this time. _

_In the end, the girl decided to stay with his pack, Alana cried terribly and Joseph tried to get his daughter to change her mind, but she insisted she knew what she wanted. The alpha promised them that he would care for their daughter and she would live with some of the other former omega females and males he had been taking in and be cared for. _

_When I asked why he was so interested in caring for cubs in particular, he answered that his mate had recently given birth to a daughter and as a consequence, he wanted to make sure that there was no young wolves out there feeling like they were outsiders or forced to be omegas because they were alone or their pack was an unwelcoming environment. He wouldn't want his daughter to ever feel like she was alone, and would want someone to do the same thing he was doing for their children if she ever found herself in this situation. _

_This pack may become a problem._

Caroline's heart beat was quickening as she held the journal in both hands, turning pages as she continued to try and find testimonies about this pack. She couldn't prove that this was what would have been her pack, or her father. The dates lined up, she would have been born, a new born, when Mikael and this alpha met, but Kelly had never said anything about her parents being an alpha family. Was she an alpha's heir? The next few weeks were the aftermath of Alana and Joseph's daughter leaving and more about Mikael's children and Esther's pregnancy.

The next mention of the pack was a month later.

_Another two of our cubs has defected to this Kentucky pack, which now has 25 wolves including its pups under this alpha's control. I have to do something to stop families following their children to this pack in a desperate need to be together. Esther commented that she would rather her children be with her than by themselves in another pack and if that meant leaving the pack she had grown up, she would do it happily. It was not the welcoming of comments. _

_So I called in my favour with the hunter Darren Smith. _

Caroline's blood ran cold, she knew that name. It was the name of the hunter who had killed her parents.

_He was surprised to get my call but was glad to help me. I explained that a blood wolf family was masquerading as normal werewolves in Kentucky and leading a murderous rampage, corrupting good wolves and getting out of control. He drank my story down like good wine, and agreed that they should be stopped. Killing the alpha without a male heir will cause the pack to split up and the cubs we lost will surely return to their parents' side and bring some of their new pack mates with them. _

_It was a mutual beneficial agreement that he seek out Bill Forbes and his mate and kill them both, make it look like an accident and make sure their new daughter got out alive. I'm going to make this alpha's worst nightmare come true. _

_His daughter Caroline will know what it is truly like to be alone. _

The journal slipped through Caroline's numb fingers and fell to the floor with a deafening thud.


	16. The Highway Don't Care

**So, I was absolutely overwhelmed with reviews yesterday! Over 70 reviews for one chapter alone, and pushing the total reviews up to 400 in two chapters! That's absolutely mad! I'm so happy and thankful for all your amazing reviews, even if you guys hate me for what I did in the previous chapter! I thought it only to post a new chapter as a thank you and a celebration for hitting 400 reviews! Thank you for 400 reviews, let's hope for another 100 then because this story is no where near done! **

**Also, I wanted to update you on my other works. I'm still working on the new chapter of The Queen of Quarter, it's a difficult chapter and I keep changing my mind on what to do because I want it to be great for you as it'll be one of the last few. I also find little time to write it when I'm writing this, and my other works. I'm hopefully going to publish a drabble in the next week and get back into that, and I'm also writing a one shot (a very very long one shot) that takes place during The War of Roses, so keep your eyes peeled on my Tumblr for previews of them both and this story as well. **

**Onwards**

* * *

_The highway won't dry your tears_  
_The highway don't need you here_  
_The highway don't care if you're coming home_  
_But I do, I do._

Highway Don't Care - Tim McGraw (Feat. Keith Urban and Taylor Swift)

* * *

Klaus returned from his brother's house a few hours later to find it completely silent, the TV was off; there was no movement to be heard. He called out Caroline's name but there was no response. The door slamming behind him was the only noise that broke the silence, followed by Klaus' cautious footsteps as he began up the stairs. He convinced himself as he took each step that Caroline had taken a nap or she was on the top floor and couldn't hear him, trying to quell the emptiness that was beginning to create a pit in his stomach.

He pushed the door to their bedroom open and found it empty and the sheets undisturbed since Caroline had pulled them tight this morning whilst they got ready for the day. Klaus checked the bathroom and the wardrobe for good measure, trying to detect even a heartbeat within the four walls of the house. The hole in his stomach was growing by the second as he listened to the deafening silence.

No, she wasn't gone. He thought to himself, beginning up the stairs that led to the old Master bedroom of the house where he'd directed her to find his father's journals that morning. He tried to ignore the silence as he climbed, or the feeling of his heart clenching with every step and movement he made. The door to the bedroom was open and there was one of his father's journals on the floor, beside a shattered lamp. Klaus jumped into action when he saw the blood on the shards, and began over to the book.

It was open on one page, a journal from the year Caroline was born. Klaus picked it up, kicking at some of the broken porcelain pieces on the floor as his eyes scanned over the page. The blood on the pieces was dried; it had been there for some time. Klaus had read each and every one of these journals after his father's death, wanting to know if there were any threats to his pack or tricks to being Alpha that Mikael hadn't divulged in his lifetime. As long as he had the knowledge, he had more power. All the words had become a blur after a while, so he didn't really recognise the entry as his eyes read along the words from his Father's memories.

With each and every word, it made more and more sense. By the time, he'd reached the end of the page; the journal was so lax in his grip it almost slipped onto the floor. Klaus snapped it shut and threw it onto the clean sheets of his parents' old bed, running his fingers through his hair. His father had organised the assassination of Caroline's parents. Mikael had wanted Caroline to grow up alone; he wanted her to feel alone and unloved. He had done something unforgivable to the blonde Klaus now knew as his mate.

Klaus stalked over to the window and realised that Caroline's yellow car was no longer parked on the curb. He hadn't noticed it was gone, probably because he wasn't used to it being there in the first place yet. She'd been gone for hours, he realised. She had read the journals, discovered the truth behind her parents' death and run away, run away from him. Klaus' fists clenched at his side and he had to suppress the urge to punch a wall. Caroline had left him, endangering the both of them, and now he had to go find her and drag her back, Klaus thought angrily to himself as he began out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

* * *

Caroline clenched the steering wheel in both hands, dried tears on her cheek as she navigated the dark country road. There were only a few streetlamps and nobody seemed to be around for miles, and she was lost. She'd read the journal, and tried to resist the urge to scream and shout. She failed, killing what was probably an antique lamp in the process, cutting her hand on the shards when she tried to clean it up. Caroline hadn't known what to do, she was distraught, she was furious, and she was confused. So she grabbed her keys and drove.

She had no idea where she was, that was the main problem. This wasn't Kentucky; this was Virginia so she had no knowledge of the roads or layout. Caroline had taken random turns and exits to try and get away from people for the time being. She knew that Klaus or one of the pack would come and get her, but she wasn't ready for that just yet. Caroline let out a sob and gripped the steering wheel as she sped down the road, not even bothering to check her speed.

Was the Universe so cruel to match her with the son of the man who killed her parents? The evidence was overwhelming at this point, she was only missing a testimony from the hunter himself but he was long gone, she couldn't find him if she wanted to. She didn't, she couldn't face the man who'd struck the match that sent her life up in flames. She had blindly hated that man for nearly two years now, not knowing that he was the puppet. He'd possibly only done what he did to her family because Mikael had pulled the strings.

Her parents were dead because of Klaus' father. And why? Because her father had power that he didn't, because he was offering comfort to those Mikael neglected, because he didn't want anyone to feel alone. What sort of man did that? What sort of man plotted for a three month old baby to have a life of loneliness, a childhood of nightmares to spite her father? Her whole life had been defined by Mikael's hunger for power and blood. She couldn't imagine what sort of attitudes he'd taught to his children.

"Oh God…" She cried to herself as she thought of the situation she was in now. Klaus was going to be mad that she left, that she ran, she knew the consequences, what would happen to them both. But it couldn't be worse than the way that journal entry had ripped through her heart. She couldn't help but wonder what would have happened to Klaus had Mikael just let her die that night, would he have another mate or would he be alone forever? For some reason, the image of the latter made her sob a little more. God, she was already falling for him.

She was falling for the son of a monster.

Caroline looked in her rear view window briefly to see there was nothing behind her, as there hadn't been for the last few minutes. Her distracted and distraught brain caused her gaze to linger there instead of placing them back on the road and her grip on the steering tilted it slightly without her noticing. She looked back to find herself going into the path of a telephone pole. Caroline screamed and hit the brakes; they screeched in protest but didn't stop her in time for the car to hit the pole head on.

Caroline was thrown forward then backwards into the seat, hitting her head in the glass and causing a crick in her neck. She didn't even pause to embrace the pain, simply rolled her neck with the knowledge that it wasn't broken and would heal quickly. Her car alarm was blaring nosily, but nobody would hear this far out. She pulled down the mirror and checked her forehead, where a huge cut was dripping blood down her face. Caroline swore and undid her seatbelt, pushing her car door open and swung her legs around.

Her feet touched the ground and she attempted to haul herself from the wrecked car, the front was completely folded around the pole and the windscreen was cracked in two places. Her feet were proving to be unsteady so she slid to the ground, leaning back against the yellow car, her baby, and put her head in her hands. She planted her booted feet on the ground and pulled her knees up, giving her elbows leverage to support her bleeding head. Caroline knew Klaus would come find her soon, so there was no point in calling him.

She fell apart again, for what seemed like the hundredth time, tears mixing with blood on her cheeks and her sobs the only sound besides the car alarm.

* * *

Klaus could see the wreckage from a little ways off, having followed Caroline's scent and her general presence, and stepped on it. He couldn't see her, and suspected the worst. He could feel her pain, both emotional and physical, and on top of that, the effects of them being separated. It didn't take too long to kick in so close to mating for the first time. Klaus pulled alongside the yellow car and found her sitting against it, crying. Part of him wanted to hold her close and kiss her wounds better. The other part of him wanted to knock her out and take her home, so he knew she was safe and with him.

She didn't acknowledge his arrival as he opened the car door, got out and closed it behind him, taking in the crash. Obviously the aftermath of her emotional distraught he thought to himself as he approached the blonde slowly. "Caroline…." He began.

"What?" She snapped with a voice full of tears.

"I read the journal." He told her softly, trying to be comforting and deciding to at least try the whole comforting option before he used force to take her home. She just cried once more at the mention of the diary and sobbed heavily. Klaus sighed and tentatively crouched beside his weeping mate, feeling her emotions messing with him in a very bad way. "Why didn't you just come to me about it?" He asked her calmly.

"I'm sorry, is the way that I chose to deal with the fact that your father had my parents _killed_ and inconvenience to you? I couldn't really give a fuck right now, Klaus." She bit out, anger rising in her voice. Klaus felt the surge of rage too, and clenched his fist where it had been sat on his knee as he knelt beside her.

She sniffed pathetically and wiped her eyes, spreading blood across her cheeks and hands. Most of it was drying and the wound was obviously closing slowly with her werewolf ability to heal quickly. It would be a faint scar by this time tomorrow, Klaus still wanted to get a proper look at it. If it wasn't treated properly, she would keep the scar. He could tell from the light white scars he'd counted on her skin last night whilst she slept that she had been treating her own war wounds from full moons for the last year. No werewolf could go without getting hurt during the occasional full moon, it was an occupational hazard.

"Did you know?" She asked him after a few seconds silence, trying to reign in their joint anger and turmoil.

"Did I know what?" Klaus asked her quietly.

"Did you know that your father sent that hunter when you told me to read those journals?" She snapped angrily, a growl in her throat. Klaus blinked, trying to think of how to answer. He hadn't thought of those journals for 4 years, the information had become ancient history to him. He hadn't known till reading it today that the baby girl Mikael had left orphaned was his mate, the connection hadn't been made until that moment. Caroline didn't like him taking any time and growled once more. "Answer the fucking question!" She almost shouted her head still in her hands.

"Yes. I read those journals when I was 20, after my father died. But I didn't know that your parents were the wolves my father sent the hunter so…"

"So it didn't matter to you." She filled in the blank. Klaus swallowed thickly as she pushed herself up unsteadily. He rose to his feet and went to help him but she shrugged him off, using the car as leverage to keep her upright. In the light of the street lamps, her cut looked more serious and Klaus automatically went forward to cup her cheeks. "Don't touch me." She ordered, pulling away just as he cupped her jawline. She nearly went over as she snatched herself back from his grasp and he caught her elbow to stop her from tumbling to the tarmac.

"Love, I need to have a look at that." He insisted.

"Don't try and get around this!" She groaned, running her hands through her hair even though they were still bloody. Red streaked into her hair and Klaus watched her as she took a few paces away from the car wreck, casting a look back at her broken vehicle. A few seconds later, she turned back to him with a question. "So, you were going to go the rest of your life knowing that your father had my parents _murdered _for no good reason and on top of that, he had a child orphaned and let her disappear into the system? Screw the fact that it was me, you didn't even bat an eye at the fact your father did that to one of his own kind, little girl, a baby..." She asked him.

"There was nothing that I could do for you by the time that I read the journals." He reminded her.

"But you read that entry, that sickening journal page and didn't care. The apple obviously not falling far from the tree." She spat out. Klaus flinched at that comment, all his life he'd wanted to be the opposite of his father. He'd wanted to show that he wasn't the man his father was, but he realised now that try as he may, his father had moulded him. He hadn't cared one bit about any of the acts his father committed in the name of his pack. "I can't be around something like that; I can't be around people who would murder and orphan children to spite good people." She hissed.

"Well, you don't have much choice in the matter!" He snapped back at her. Caroline stood tall and glared at him; her anger was finally getting the better of them both. "You can't pick and choose your mate, and leaving me isn't better for either of us. You nearly killed yourself in a car crash after a few hours away from each other, do you realise what would have happened if you had been killed? I would have felt it, I would know you were dead instantly, I would go crazy and my own brothers would probably have to put a bullet in my brain if I didn't kill myself first! You would be gone and I wouldn't be able to live in a world without you, Caroline! And for what? Something that cannot be changed!" He shouted. Caroline began to look equal parts angry and guilty at that thought.

"It doesn't change the fact that your father defined my life, he's the reason that I thought nobody would ever love me or want me." She commented quietly with venom in her voice.

"I want you, I will love you. I need you, and my father's actions don't change that." Klaus insisted, surging through to grip her jaw in his hands and make her look in the eyes to see her sincerity. "Come home, and let me look at your head. We'll talk at home. Be as mad as you like at me, at my father, at the goddamned world, but please just come and we will sort it out there." He begged her, letting her see how desperate he was to have her safe at home. Caroline stared into his eyes, her eyes glossy and wet with emotion, and he knew she saw the truth in his eyes.

"Okay." She agreed.


	17. The Fall Out

**Quick note: Thank you to Lani for smacking me around the back of the head and helping rewrite the end part of this chapter! You're a doll!**

**I won't keep you all because I know you all wanna read the new chapter, in fact I doubt that many of you are reading this but I just wanted to say thank you for reviewing and supporting the story. And keep your eyes peeled in the next week or so because I finished the final draft of my one shot 'the white princess and the red knight' today and it's been sent off for betaing by the lovely Miranda and the wonderful Kaitlin. There's a GIF set sort of preview on Tumblr at the moment and I should be posting more previews in the coming days. **

**Onto the chapter then! **

* * *

Caroline hissed angrily as Klaus pressed a cloth soaked with alcohol against her forehead. She glared at him for a second and made a huffing noise. He looked apologetic but continued to disinfect the wound carefully though it continued to sting like a bitch. Caroline hadn't spoken for hours, the entire drive home she'd been holding a ripped up half of an old shirt Klaus had in his car to staunch the bleeding. Klaus wondered absentmindedly how long she would go without speaking to him. Her wound was slowly stitching itself back together but cleaning the wound would stop a scar being left in its wake.

Klaus' eyes lowered to a scar she had along her hair line below her ear. She noticed his wandering eyes. "That was from before I turned." She told him in a matter of fact voice. When she didn't offer much explanation, Klaus just nodded and continued with his work. Dried blood came off her skin as he cleaned, making sure the wound had air and it wouldn't get infected. "Am I going to live?" She asked with a tiny bit of humour in her voice.

"I should say so; you should really count yourself lucky, you could have broken your neck." He commented as he cleared her hairline of the dried brownish red blood that had sunk into her blonde hair. Caroline was sat on the sofa bench at the end of his bed and he'd pulled a chair up to face her straight on for his inspection. There was blood on her clothes and in her hair but it was nothing a wash couldn't fix. Klaus put the now stained cloth aside and swiped his thumb over the cut that was no longer bleeding. "There, give it a few days and you'll be good as new," he assured her.

"Like it never happened?" She guessed. Klaus knew the trap she was setting; she was luring him into admitting he was just trying to cover up this whole incident. He sighed and shook his head. "I'm still mad, you know." Caroline added.

"That's fine; you can be mad all you wish. Take all the time that you need with this, Caroline." He told her, wanting to take her hands and squeeze them but not sure how many squares their relationships had been set back since she'd discovered his father's part in her family's demise. Caroline nodded and leaned back, supporting herself on the palms of her hands against the sofa. Klaus watched her tentatively as he put the cap on the alcohol he'd used to disinfect her wound and put the bottle aside. It was just a clear pure alcohol they had on hand to clean wounds rather than for drinking; Klaus wished that at this point it was drinking alcohol. There was a comfortable silence between the two of them whilst Caroline made her next move.

"Have you ever...I mean...did you ever kill anyone?" She asked him quietly, almost like she was scared to know the answer.

Klaus considered lying for a few seconds to spare her feelings. She could live the rest of their lives together not knowing what he had done before she walked into his life and changed it, but they would be living a lie, a fantasy. Lying to spare her feelings would be what his father would have done, Klaus was sure that his mother didn't know half the things Mikael had done behind closed doors in their life together. He wouldn't play Caroline for the fool, he already cared for her too much to place her in a bubble he knew one day would pop. So he answered the question truthfully. "Yes I have killed before." Klaus admitted.

Caroline was looking straight at him with her unreadable eyes. She didn't flinch or react when he spoke, but he wasn't sure whether that was a good or bad sign. "Who?" She inquired a moment later, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"People who wanted to hurt my family or hurt my pack." He assured her, trying to distract her from the fact that he didn't know their names; he only knew that they were guilty and they had tried to hurt his pack or take what was his. He could see her shake her head once and knew that she didn't accept this as a viable reason for murder. "It's a given, a duty for the Alpha to protect the pack, no matter how unpleasant it may be. And death is the penalty for the offences they caused."

"It is not in your right to decide who should live or die." Caroline informed him, standing up and pacing a few steps as she combed her fingers through her hair. Her anger was bubbling up once more as Klaus watched her. "You killed people without due process? What sort of justice is that?" She asked, swivelling around to face him.

Klaus stood. "It's the justice that exists in our world." He told her.

"Not in my world. In my world, you are given fair trial before you are executed; I'll bet you didn't even give them time to explain." She hissed back.

"There is no your world and my world anymore and there never was. There is our world and theirs." When he spoke of the human world, he spoke as if he were talking about mould on the ceiling. Caroline bristled angrily and clenched her fist, her nails digging into her skin. "You were a lost girl in the wrong world, if you had been raised as a wolf, you would agree with me. You still believe that you are part of the human world, when I can assure you, sweetheart that you are not and never will be a human." He told her.

"And whose fault is it that I was raised in the wrong world as you put it?" She snapped. "Answer, your father. Your father is the reason that I had to grow up in the wrong world. Your father is the reason that I don't know what my parents' voices sounded like. And guess what, it was your father who plotted to have me grow up alone knowing that one day I would turn and have no idea what was happening to me when my bones started to snap in the middle of the night! How can you possibly think that that's okay, Klaus?" She asked.

"Did I say that?" He returned instantly. Caroline paused, and he knew he had her. "What my father did to your family was monstrous but he did it believing it was what was best for his pack. I am not excusing what he did-"

"You are though!" Caroline interrupted with shout, stepping closer so she could shout in his face to express her anger. He already knew how angry she was. He could feel it running through his veins, the anger, and the heartache. "The moment you trivialize it, you are excusing what he did. It's just what wolves do, he thought it was best, don't pretend that he was doing anything but making a grab for power and punishing my father for having something he didn't. How am I supposed to know that you won't use that same excuse to do awful things, and I'll have to sit and watch you kill and tear families apart?" She asked her voice full of tears. Klaus finally recognized an emotion rising in her, fear. She was afraid of him repeating his father's mistakes, she was afraid of him becoming his father and doing evil things in the name of his pack.

"You don't." Klaus replied tersely. "You will just have to trust me."

"But you've already killed people, those people had families and people who now have to live without them! You know the hole that leaves in your heart, but you were lucky! Nobody plotted to kill your family; nobody has their blood on their hands. I have to live knowing that the man who killed my parents is out there and the man who sent him lived a happy life with his mate and children, the life he denied my family." Her voice broke in the middle of the sentence and her voice became higher and higher as she spoke. Klaus could see her becoming unsteady on her feet and went to take her elbows in both hands to keep her upright. She didn't pull away. "I can't watch you become like that. I can't be the one who stood and watched as more people become empty and lose their lives or the ones that they love." Caroline almost whispered.

He wanted to tell her that he wouldn't ever become like that. He was already half way there. Klaus couldn't promise that he would never kill again; it was a duty of the alpha to eliminate threats to his pack. And god help anyone who tried to hurt her, his mate, his other half. He couldn't stop himself killing the man, woman or child who hurt her. "I can't promise that." He told her truthfully.

"Then let go of me." She snapped, snatching herself back despite the fact she'd been practically curled into him moments before, enjoying the calming feeling his touch brought to her heavy heart. Caroline began out of the room. He wasn't letting her walk out the door if it killed him. If she ran again, she might never come back or get hurt. Angrily, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back and her hair flew through the air as she snapped her head around towards him in fury. She was glaring at him, the ferocity of their movements having brought her just a little too close and before he knew what he was doing he was kissing her.

At first, Caroline made a noise of complaint against his lips and hit back against his chest but his arm wrapped around her waist possessively kept her close enough for her to mould herself into the kiss. Her hands moved from his chest to his hair, tugging at it, and kissed him back aggressively. Klaus grabbed the back of her thighs like he had the night before and scooped her up, pressing her against the wall next to the door of their bedroom.

One of her hands grabbed his jaw and the other stayed rooted in his curls, fingernails scratching against his scalp. She groaned against his lips as one of his hands cupped her backside while he pushed her back into the wall, her breasts pressing against his chest and his arousal grinding against her core. He could only smirk as their emotions began to blur together and mess with the others in a vicious cycle, a hurricane of lust and hot anger. She snarled and kissed him again, as she tried to get off the smart shirt he'd put on for his quasi business meeting with Elijah. After fiddling with the first two buttons she just ripped it off, a few of the buttons falling to the floor and the sound of tearing fabric making him break the kiss.

Swiftly, he put her on the ground and before she could react his lips attacked her throat while his hands gave her dress the same treatment that she had just giving his, ripping it off. She moaned, scratching down his back as he unhooked her bra. He let go off her again, both of them breathing heavily as they looked at each other for the shortest of moments, still glaring at each other. He did not like being compared to his father. She did not like not even having a choice about spending her live with the son of the man that had killed her parents.

The pent up frustration unloaded itself again as to remove his pants, ripping it down with his boxers, and then got rid of her blood stained winter tights as his lips, tongue and teeth attacked her throat again, his hands buried in her messy curls. He pushed her to the wall again as all that stood between them was the fabric of her panties, and swiftly ripped them off as well.

He felt another wave of anger coming from her and then she had pushed him away. Caroline wasn't having any of it and using a strength he didn't even know she possessed, she pushed him back against the wall. He growled in arousal, his lips slightly opened as she ground herself up against him and his hands moved on their own to pick her up again.

When he tried to switch their positions again she pushed him back down, then dragged him to the floor, looking down at him as she ground herself against him again. Most of his anger had vanished, completely overcome by carnal desires and she felt herself solely focusing on her lust as well. He was at her mercy and he let her, clearly struck by the view their position granted him.

There was a hint of a smirk on her lips; she knew what she did to him. Caroline cupped his face to lure his lips to hers once more, and slipped her tongue past his teeth to continue to drive him crazy.


	18. The Gospel

**Nearly 480 words, that's absolutely amazing, guys! Thank you guys for your amazing reviews on the last couple of chapters, they really mean the world to me that you all love this story so much and you're all so supportive. For those asking whether we were going to see the sexy times, I ended up bottling it. Plus I wrote the smut scene originally, and then Lani reworked it because it was not nearly 'angry' enough. So thanks to Lani, for saving you guys from my awful smut writing skills! **

**Be sure once you've read, enjoyed and reviewed this chapter to go check out the first part of my new one shot set during the cousins' war called 'the white princess and the red knight'. It's basically a mix of The Duchess, The White Queen and Klaroline, which in my opinion is a pretty awesome mix but I will let you guys be the judges! So go give it a go! **

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The next morning, Caroline woke with her back pressed against Klaus' chest and their fingers linked together. She opened her eyes and looked over to where her now ripped bra was lying on the floor; she groaned at the memory and tucked her head into the pillows to hide her reddening face. How did she end up here? She thought to herself. Caroline removed her face from the pillows a moment later and turned to face her mate. Klaus was sleeping beside her, red scratch marks healing on his biceps from where her nails had dug just a little too deep. The blonde sighed heavily and pushed the covers aside.

She picked up the remains of her bra and threw it onto the bench at the end of the bed. Klaus could replace that, she thought to herself as she walked into the bathroom, grabbing Klaus' shirt from the night before and pulling it on. Caroline closed the door behind her and went to work with her morning after routine. She showered first, taking time to wash her hair of blood.

How had Klaus possibly found that attractive? She thought to herself as she applied generous amounts of her conditioner to her locks and let it rinse under the hot stream of water. Well this was a man who found the fact she was screaming at him about his tendency to murder as a cue to lay one on her. Of course what did that say about her that she responded? Passionately and multiple times in multiple places. Caroline sighed and picked up her bottle of body wash. Already she'd gotten to a place where she couldn't resist him, she needed him. The sooner she recognised that, the sooner she would be able to take control of it. Caroline hated being out of control, and now she felt everything was slipping from her grip. She needed to regain the independence she had fought for.

Caroline knew she was stupid to let Klaus kiss her, and she was stupid to kiss back. She knew that his intentions had only been to kiss her, to show her how much he cared for her without having to say it, the easy way out. They couldn't help who they were to each other, anger and lust were two sides of the same coins and that was never truer for a werewolf. She shouldn't have let herself get lost in him but it was too easy to fall. He had tried to distract her, stop her from her want to leave again, knowing that this time she might not be as lucky as to walk around with a cut forehead and she had let him. Caroline wouldn't be proud of that, she wasn't used to be dependent on someone. She wasn't used to someone being dependent on her.

But it had made her realise something very important: she would not let Mikael win. She would defend her parents until her dying breath, people she never met but severely loved but she would not let what Klaus' father did poison them or her any longer. She knew the truth, and now it could set her free. She would struggle with it all her life now but she would not let it affect her relationship with Klaus, a relationship she had no choice in whether they made it romantic or not.

The absentminded thought of living a platonic life with Klaus crossed her mind as she stood in the shower and continued to wash herself of blood and freshen up, but she couldn't bear to think like that. Caroline couldn't hide from the truth, she was falling in love with Klaus and she was certain he was falling in love with her respectively. But they would never have a conventional relationship because of she knew the truth of her parents' death and Klaus' past with his brand of justice.

Caroline would be watching and waiting with fear to see whether Klaus would turn into his father but she would be there to stop him by any means. That is how she would defeat her demons, she thought to herself as she rinsed off. Caroline needed to think, she couldn't scream anymore, she needed processing time where her emotions couldn't get the better of her and lead her into crimes of passion. A period of deep reflection was needed right now, something for herself and herself only.

She needed a plan of action, she needed to try and get some control of the situation and she needed to think. Long and hard. Caroline formulated her plan as she scrubbed her body with her favourite vanilla body wash, making sure to wash away any lingering blood stains from her skin. Once she was certain she was squeaky clean once again, she stepped out the cubicle. Before she could start on her long term plan, she needed to see through her guide to the morning after. A long wash was always first. Second, damage control.

Caroline stepped in front of the mirror to assess her forehead. Her cut was just a pink scar now, by this time tomorrow, it would be gone. She brushed her fingertip across the length of the wound and sighed before going to her wash bag. Caroline pulled out all her makeup she would need for the day, not planning to use much, just enough to hide the scar and stop her feeling naked. A hard task when you genuinely were naked, she realised before grabbing a towel and wrapping it around her body to cover herself. She was so used to living by herself. Once she was confident her powdered face and made up eyes would distract anyone from her cut, Caroline pulled out her birth control pills and popped the daily dose out into her hand before swallowing it dry.

She had her system and she was pretty au fait with it by now, it was a second nature to her, whilst she hadn't had many omega wolves as sexual partners, she wasn't as elitist as some werewolves about sleeping with humans. It was at this point in the conversation that she kicked out her slumber party buddy, if they had even stayed the night. But she couldn't exactly do that when she was living with him, Caroline thought to herself as she opened up the bathroom door and saw Klaus was still sleeping. Caroline smiled at him completely out of it and began into the wardrobe to grab some pyjamas. After pulling them on and tying her hair up, she sighed with finality. She would just have to formulate a new final step for her morning after step by step plan.

Breakfast sounded good.

* * *

Klaus found Caroline downstairs an hour later, a near empty bowl of Kol's favourite cereal in her lap as she watched TV. He had woken and got on with his own morning after system. Shower and breakfast, he was a simple man in some aspects. Caroline took another spoonful of the soggy looking pencil sharpenings Kol called breakfast in her mouth as he sat down in his arm chair. "Good morning, love." He greeted. To his surprise, she actually looked up at him and smiled. He hadn't expected her to even speak to him this morning. Klaus would admit he didn't know what to say. Did he comment on the fact that they had yet to resolve their argument or did he just pretend everything was okay? This is why he should have actually spent more time in committed relationships in High School; humans were good practice for when you found your mate.

"Caroline..." He started.

"I don't want to talk about it." She interrupted, finishing her mouthful and turning down the volume of the TV with the remote. Her voice was tense or angry, it was calm. She was calm. Klaus raised his eyebrows at her words. "We can argue about it until our vocal chords bleed but it won't get us anywhere. I need some time to think about it myself. But until then, it's not going to help our relationship if we tiptoe around each other." Klaus nodded in agreement.

"What exactly are you proposing then?" He asked.

"I am proposing that we just call a cease fire on the whole situation and continue on. You said that you would teach me more about our species, which might be a good start. I don't want our lives together to be affected by this. But I don't want us to just pretend like this never happened because that's no way to start a relationship. We need to talk about it, but we need to get to know each other better and learn to trust each other. We need to be a mate pair that isn't dealing with this, just until I get my head straight." She explained, taking one final bite of her cereal between sentences and watching her show on mute. Klaus didn't recognise the show.

"So we're putting a rain check on discussing it for a currently undetermined period of time?" He summarised.

Caroline pondered his explanation for a little moment then nodded. Klaus nodded and there was a silence between them for a few seconds. "In that case, I'll say good morning properly." He commented, pushing himself out of his chair to stand over her and kiss her lips softly. She smiled against his lips, for a moment, it was like nothing had ever happened. The kiss lingered for a few moments before he pulled away. "And now I'll get some breakfast that doesn't have a leprechaun on the packaging. And then I'll teach you everything you need to know." He told her softly.

"Klaus..." Caroline added gently, locking eyes with him. "Tell me what I can and cannot believe again, and I won't stay, consequences be damned." She threatened lowly. Klaus watched as she stared back at him, knowing that she was not joking in any way, shape or form. He could not let his words said in anger and desperation push her away. He nodded once.

"Agreed." He told her softly.

* * *

"Why do we exist?" Caroline asked curiously as the pair of them were in the studio a few hours later. Klaus had been telling her everything about their species, as they ate and now Klaus was painting whilst Caroline did her toe nails. Klaus gave her a quizzical look as she shook the nail polish before unscrewing the cap and beginning to add the first coat. "Where did werewolves come from? Did God make us on the eighth day and forget to tell whoever was writing the bible?" She inquired as she painted her big toe.

"There's no real evidence about where we came from. But my mother told us a story that her mother told her and so on. It was just a bedtime story, probably no truth to it."

"Tell it to me."

Klaus chuckled and continued with his work as Caroline continued with hers. He ducked his head as he tried to recall the story in full. "The story went that once we were the only ones, there were no humans, only werewolves. One day, an alpha chief of a tribe had two sons. One desired to be free from the pain of the full moon, and the other had yet to turn but desired to be the chief's only heir. They both went to see a woman who had the powers to call on nature to do her bidding, a sort of witch, separately who promised them their desires. She performed a spell on the chief's first born which unbound him from the moon and made him human. So disgusted with him for his choice, the chief banished him and his mate who had made the decision to turn human with him. He left the tribe with his mate and sought out greener pastures." Klaus told her.

"And the second son?" She asked as she began work on her left foot.

"The witch continued to promise that she would give him what he wanted: to be the only heir and to turn before any werewolf had before as a show that he was the true heir. He was proclaimed the next chief and alpha when his brother left but he still wanted more. The witch tried to stop him but he insisted, threatening to kill her family if she did not bend to his will." He continued, cleaning off his brushes and going to sit beside her on the sofa when he was done. "She told him that the spirits had told her that he could only turn before his 18th birthday if he became a wolf of blood, not of the moon. And to do this, he would need to kill his brother on a full moon and become the true heir." Klaus told her as she continued to do her nails.

"What did he do?"

"He found his brother, who was living a happy life with his mate and their young son and killed them all except the child. Not because he wanted to, but because the moment he sank his dagger into his brother's heart, he began to turn for the first time. He only saw bloodlust and attacked the woman, but spared the child and left it to die without its mother." Klaus recalled, swallowing awkwardly when he realised the similarities between his innocent bed time story and Caroline's parents' death. Caroline seemed to notice herself but urged him to continue anyway. "He returned to the tribe and when they realised what he had done, the chief had no choice but to turn his back on his second son as well and strip him of his rights. He committed the biggest sin a wolf could ever commit, he hurt his family, his pack."

"I'm guessing he didn't like that too much, the second son?" Caroline asked pointedly as she finished her big toe, fully immersed in the story at this point.

"You guess right." Klaus chuckled. "He went to the witch and demanded she take it back, undo what he had done. When she insisted there was no way, he became angry and killed her children. She in turn cursed him so that all his descendants would be bound of their true nature unless they killed, then they would become bloodthirsty perversions of werewolves, that wouldn't spare their own child if they came in their way. The second son was too stupid not to have children when he found his mate and end the bloodline there." Caroline shrugged and examined her toe nails for symmetry. Klaus tucked some of her hair behind her ear and she smiled to herself as he did.

"After the second son admitted that he left the child behind, the son of his brother was rescued by his old pack and raised by his grandmother. When he grew up, he did not turn as others did and neither did his children even though their mother was a werewolf, as the spell the witch cast had been designed to last forever. In one generation, the foolishness of two wolves had created the humans who would eventually over power us and force us into the shadows and the blood wolves who would continue to try and get their revenge on the wolves that cast them out and rightfully so."

Caroline paused for a second to take the story in and mull it over before shrugging her shoulders and clicking her tongue. "You really have a problem with blood wolves don't you?" She chuckled. "I've never met one."

"You should pray that you never do." Klaus insisted, his hand moving to where her free hand was sitting on the back of the sofa whilst her other hand painted her nails. She looked up at where their hands were sitting then to him. "Blood wolves are vicious, and they desire nothing more than to see others in pain. They come into packs and destroy them, taking the lands for themselves until another pack reclaims it. They take wolves prisoner and drench them in wolfs bane, chain them in silver and send them mad from the pain they suffer." Caroline looked down at her toes, wriggling them and tucking some hair behind her ear.

Klaus took his other hand from where it had been sat in his lap and cupped her cheek to get her eye contact. "Caroline, I will try my best to stop myself from what it is that upsets you but I will not hesitate to kill a blood wolf. They would go for you first; you are the most important woman in the pack and the key to my co-operation. I am completely dependent on you and your well being. I wouldn't feel guilty or think twice about killing them, especially if they ever tried to hurt you." He promised her. Caroline's eyes were fixated on his as they gleamed with emotions.

She sighed heavily and put her polish aside; shifting so she could tuck herself under his arm without damaging her still drying nails. He wrapped his hand around her shoulder and squeezed it. He sensed they had nothing more to say on the conversation, but they were one step closer to being ready for their rain check. "What would you like to know now?" He asked cautiously.

"Nothing." She replied. "I just want to sit here for a while. I like it here with you." Her words were quiet whispers and sweet confessions. Klaus smiled and kissed her forehead gently. He could almost hear her brain working as she mused to herself; he decided not to intrude on her personal thoughts just yet. She needed time and he had more than plenty to give her. He wanted her to know that he wanted them to work this out as much as she did, and right now, the best way to do that was to let things run their course.

"Then that's what we'll do." Klaus told her, not telling her how much he loved to be with her as well. The pair sat in silence for the next few hours until Caroline fell asleep against his chest.


	19. The Counsel

**JESUS, MARY AND JOESPH (NOT MORGAN)! 500 REVIEWS! *dances around for ever loving joy* **

**Thank you guys so much for being so amazingly supportive of this story and sticking with me, it really means a lot. 500 reviews is just mad and I didn't ever think that this story would get that many! Thank you all so much, and I hope I continue to make you want to review and enjoy this story. Today is a shorter chapter leading onto two pretty big chapters including a full moon, so I hope you all enjoy! **

* * *

Elijah closed the journal with finality as Klaus sat opposite him, watching his brother read over the entries that had been the cause of so much grief over the last day or so. Caroline had gone to see Katherine as the brunette had invited her to come have lunch with her one day when they first met, insisting she needed some time outside of the house. Klaus and Elijah had taken that as a sign that the girls wished to be alone and decided to have a meeting of their own between Alpha and Beta. In addition, Kol was there, even though nobody had invited him. The older brother sucked his teeth for a few seconds. "Interesting."

"I wouldn't call it interesting." Klaus commented. "It's like he's screwing with me from beyond the grave." He added.

"There was no possible way that he would have known that Caroline would grow up to be your mate, Niklaus. Many have tried and failed to predict and locate their mate before their time, it's a doomed enterprise." Elijah reminded him, taking a sip of his coffee. Kol took the journal from the side and opened it to the bookmarked page that had torn Caroline's world apart. Klaus watched as his little brother's eyes raced back and forth across the page. "It comes with time."

"Well, it came with time. And now our father's sins are coming back just in time to make sure Caroline has a deep rooted distrust of me not to become like him." Klaus snapped as Kol let out a sound that was half a sigh, half a low whistle, obviously having reached the exciting plot twist of the journal entry. "Caroline thinks that I will confuse my duty to protect our pack with an obvious genetic lust for power and use the former as an excuse to commit such sins." He explained as Kol closed the journal.

"Then make her see that you won't." Elijah insisted. "Prove it to her."

"How exactly does Nik do that when Dear Old Dad, who rots in Hell-"

"Kol." Elijah snapped.

"I don't exactly see our father going through the Pearly Gates." Kol replied instantly. "As I was saying before I was interrupted by the Daddy's Boy, our father killed her family, left her to rot and for entirely selfish reasons that he disguised as honourable intentions; Caroline might not trust a man she met a week ago not to do the same, seeing as her parents' murderer was the model for Klaus growing up. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, after all." Kol reasoned. Klaus didn't want to admit it, but his brother was right.

There was a moment silence whilst the three of them tried to think of a way that Klaus could prove that he wasn't his father to Caroline. Klaus hated being compared to Mikael with every fibre of his being, if it had been any other person in the world, they would be missing a limb by now. Caroline could say all she wanted to him, but he still craved her approval and her trust, he needed it like he needed air. He already trusted her completely and he was half way to loving her fire and her smile and the way she kissed him.

Klaus decided that they could circle back to this debate and brought up another topic. "Caroline wants to show the journal to our mother. " He explained.

"I don't think that wise." Elijah replied almost instantly. Kol nodded in agreement, clicking his tongue and going over the entry once more. These journals had never been touched by the mate of its author; Esther had refused to even look at them after his death. Caroline would be breaking a bubble that Esther and Mikael had been living in, the same one that Klaus refused to put her in by lying to her. He couldn't believe for one second that Esther had known about this, the guilt would have eaten at her. She was a mother herself, she couldn't stand and watch parents be murdered and their child orphaned. "Our mother doesn't need to know about this."

"She doesn't need to know that her new alpha female was nearly murdered by the old alpha male and that her parents most certainly were? She doesn't need to know that our father committed these atrocities without telling her. And if by some unlikely trick of fate that she knew all along, does Caroline not deserve to know that too?" Klaus asked rhetorically, gesturing to the journal with one hand. It was sat in front of Kol, open on the page in question.

"It won't change what's past." Kol commented. "It won't make her less of an orphan or our mother less in love with our father. It won't be good for either of them, Nik. You've got to make her change her mind." He insisted tersely.

"I think I'm realising that I can't make Caroline do anything." Klaus murmured almost like a grumpy, taking a sip of the beer he'd gotten for himself and Kol. Elijah, the bore, was drinking only coffee as he was a father and would be with his children once more in an hour or so. "I can't stop her showing our mother if she wants, I can't stop her running away, I can't stop her hating our father, I can't force her to get over this." He listed, becoming more and more frustrated by the second. Klaus was used to being in control but with Caroline, he gave her every ounce of his power without realising.

"You can't be the King of Everything, Nik." Kol shrugged. Klaus really hated it and thought it was physically impossible until now but once again, Kol was right. This was the plan, it had always been the plan; that cosmic design mapped in the stars by the spirits or God or Nature or whoever. Klaus could control everything and everyone he wanted and saw fit, but not her, never her. She could bat her eyelashes, smile or scream at him, and he would bend to her will every time. He was the unstoppable force that took the power, manipulated and ruled but she was the immovable object that could stop him in his tracks. This is why they were mates.

"Regardless, you have to show her that she can trust you not to make her fears a reality." Elijah commented to fill the silence. Klaus nodded, he agreed that was what he had to do. But how did he achieve it? That was another question.

Xx

Caroline loved kids, she always had. One of the few joys she had in the girls' home was getting to look after some of the younger girls. Nothing over the age of 6 because that was when they became self-aware of the horrible situation they were in and started acting out or they would realise that nobody would ever adopt them and lose hope, but the really young ones she loved to play with when she wasn't at school. They still had that light and that hope that one day their parents would come and take them home, the light of a hopeful and innocent child. It was a light that Caroline loved and valued because she lost hers long ago.

Lily still had that light, and why wouldn't she? Both her parents were alive and well, they were here and they loved her. She giggled and grappled at Caroline's blonde hair like it was pure gold, trying to eat it. Katherine chuckled. "She loves bright blonde hair, probably because it's so shiny." She explained as she poured the two women a cup of coffee.

Katherine was Klaus' age and had met Elijah when she was 20 as she had just been explaining. Her pack lived in Pittsburgh, and she was the daughter of a non-Alpha pack wolf. Interestingly, her mother had been human. It was extremely rare but sometimes a human can be a wolf's mate, which was probably due to long lost werewolf genes kicking in or if you believed it, the idea that humans were just werewolves bound by nature. Katherine had a twin sister, Elena who still lived in Pittsburgh and had no mate yet. Katherine handed Caroline a cup of coffee and plucked Lily from her arms, kissing her forehead and putting her in her high chair. Samuel, the oldest, was sitting watching TV a few feet away.

"Did they treat you differently because you're half human?" Caroline asked curiously.

"They treated me like I was a mongrel." Katherine replied instantly. Caroline raised her eyebrows and took a sip of her coffee. "My old pack, I mean. They despised my mother because she was different to them. Especially when they had Elena and me, they said my mother was dirtying the bloodlines and we would be lucky if we avoided her curse and got to turn. All werewolves are elitist in that way, but my pack took the biscuit. She used to beg my father to leave the pack with her, but he wouldn't do it so she suffered all the hate and the prejudice. If you think Klaus' elitism is bad, then you need to meet some of my old pack."

"That's awful, it must have hurt."

"I didn't care, I never did. People can say things to tear you down but at the end of the day, you're the only person who stops yourself from anything. I'm a survivor. Elena used to cry into her pillows all night long because of a few mean words, but we have the advantage of having one foot in both worlds. We're not ignorant of reality like humans and we're not highbrow like werewolves. It's the same advantage you have, Caroline." Katherine explained as she pushed some of Lily's hair away from her face and took a sip of her own coffee.

"How did our pack react when you came here?" Caroline asked.

"Nobody walked out when I was introduced, that was for certain." Katherine quipped. Caroline pursed her lips at the thought of Hayley walking away from the campfire and showing her dislike for the new alpha female. "But Elijah loves me, I love him and I'm a good werewolf, that's good enough for them. Rebekah may not like anyone who takes attention away from her, but she'll steal it back one way or another." The girl smirked and Caroline found herself smirking too.

"At least you don't have to figure out how to be an Alpha female."

"It's not something you figure out, or that's what Elijah says. It's born inside you, all the information, all the leadership, all the willpower. That's why you are Klaus' mate, because you were made to be an Alpha female and only Alphas can be mates." She explained, shaking her head like Caroline was oh so silly. Caroline tried to smile at this reassurance but failed. "You said you were the first born daughter of an alpha pair, then that makes you an Alpha female. Girls are rarely the first born of an Alpha." She added.

"Yes, but until a year ago, I didn't know I was meant to be a werewolf, much less an Alpha female or a good one." Caroline retorted.

"Until three years ago, I didn't know how to be a mother, but I figured it out without having someone teach it to me. " Katherine replied as she handed Lily her sippy cup. Caroline looked over as the girl hit the cup against the plastic table of her high chair in a displeased way then realised it was her drink and began to suck at the top happily. Katherine smiled and kissed the top of her little girl's head. "It's within your power, Caroline, you just have to find it and let it blow everyone away." She assured the girl.

Caroline nodded, that much was true. But how did she do that? That was the question.


End file.
